melco resorts & entertainment
kimono roboto
Directors // Warren Du Preez & Nick Thornton Jones
An intriguing new exhibition held across a 10-day period at Tokyo’s Omotesando Hills. Kimono Roboto brings together sound and motion to present an artistic exploration of the kimono from its early beginnings to present day.
Commissioned by Melco Resorts & Entertainment, the exhibition reflects the kimono’s trajectory from attire for everyday life in the late 16th century, to its status as a living work of art, and its powerful influence on 21st century fashion and popular culture.
Thirteen kimonos are on display in a circular space. At its centre stands an animatronic robot wearing one ‘hero’ kimono. Around the walls of the exhibition, which was conceived by fashion show specialists Bureau Betak with creative direction by Remi Paringaux, are a series of images and films created for the show.
Creative Director // Remi Paringaux
DOP // Daniel Landin
Edit // Owen Oppenheimer @ The Quarry
Grade & 2D // Duncan Horn @ Nineteentwenty
Robot built by John Nolan's Studio
behind the scenes
Bespoke robot models, designed by Warren and Nick with Tom Blake and Gavin Coetzee and created by renowned animatronics builder John Nolan Studios, will wear the kimonos. The films for the exhibition will explore the dichotomy between the soft folds of the fabric and the hard, golden surface of the robots. According to the team, each kimono is presented as a new ‘chapter’ which dictates the colour and mood of the film.
The films are going to be shown on a large scale about four metres high and 24 metres wide, so they will really impact and fill the gallery space. They have been shot to entwine with specially composed music, immersing viewers in a new sensory experience. As each kimono explores a different style and time period, we have honed the look and feel to react in a different way to the new surfaces, designs and styles.
—Duncan Horn, VFX Supervisor
To capture the films, the exquisite kimonos were flown to London where Warren and Nick shot them on their robot models in West London. “The models are animatronic but there were some elements of rigging we wanted to completely remove in the final films. Because of the size of the films, we made sure to get a lot of footage that we could experiment with in the edit” Adds Duncan.
related project
Swedish singer Björk also partnered in the exhibition. The music video for her track Utopia will be screened at the exhibition. The film was also directed by Warren and Nick with CG by Analog Films. The team also brought Duncan Horn on board to finalise the look of the singer in the video.
View the project here
