Artistic greenery: Makoto Azuma.

Makoto Azuma is a Japanese flower artist who creates artworks with plants, seeking to recover their essential value as our allies for a “greener” life.



Makoto Azuma’s most recent projects is one of the installations set up for the House Vision 2013 Tokyo Exhibition, held a few weeks ago in Tokyo. The artist teamed up with Naruse-Inokuma Architects, YKK AP and TOTO to design this unique bathroom concept, a true botanical sculpture.



In this installation, greenery has been turned into the pivotal point of the bathroom. Normally relegated to the background, here the plants become the extreme centre of attention, making a real statement about their importance for our planet and for our health and wellbeing in general.





With gokujo no heya (room of exquisiteness), the artist shows how we can use any space to “revive” our world and make it green again. His ironic, over-the-top use of plants certainly makes a big impact – indeed, plants, white china sanitary fixtures and glass flooring have all been combined, clearly communicating the idea of eco-friendly green living spaces.



Like all ephemeral artworks, in this case too, Makoto Azuma’s photographic records of gokujo no heya are a particularly important factor in getting the message across, emphasising the communicative power of the image, which itself becomes a work of art.



Project: Makoto Azuma, http://azumamakoto.com/
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Year: 2013
Photos: Shiinoki
Courtesy of LYDIA PR agency in Tokyo, http://www.lydiapr.com