Thoughts behind the scene
Niki & Yusuke Tsukamoto are artists living in the forest above Los Angeles. They have a combined art practice focusing on natural dyes and fibers, collective consciousness and visual language. Their work is deeply informed by the Wiener Werkstätte approach of coupling avant-garde aesthetics with traditional craft methods and the Bauhaus belief in the oneness of the artist and the craftsman.
As with both of the proceeding movements, the underlying principle to their practice is the creation of the Gesamtkunstwerk, or "total work of art”. They approach this philosophy by willfully creating a life that is to be the ultimate artwork.
Niki Tsukamoto’s daily practice is based in making medicinally dyed cloth created with specific color frequencies from plant sources and meditations on the collective consciousness through ritual and devotion. Expanding on earlier work exploring myth-making, Yusuke Tsukamoto creates a visual language through universal forms of symbolism in an exploration of the concept of language as the basis of narrative and social structure.
Lookout & Wonderland began in 2005 as a home for radical idea-making and collaborative creation. Looking beyond traditional ideas of art and design, we allow every area of our respective practices, from natural medicine and meditation to brand identity and creative direction hold equal weight and inform our approach to making work. These principles guide our focused effort to raise awareness around the need for community-based care, sustainable living, and pathways toward global health and well-being. Utilizing fabrics that are grown with carbon-sequestering farming methods, dead-stock excess from the fashion industry, sustainably grown plant-based dyes and local invasive species are just a few of the ways we work with our local community to bring forward a better way to the future. Applying this community-care-based ideology to collaboration and branding, we work together with clients to shape considerate design with the most sustainable methods possible.
The Lookout & Wonderland fiber art project started in 2004 as a resist technique and indigo dye research project with a concentrated focus on the exploration of the sociological aspects of color, alchemy, and surface design.
Contact the studio & commission inquiry
Say hello! We happily accept personal and public commission work inquiries. Please feel free to contact us and we can discuss all of the possibilities.
x