Anthony Fawcett and Jane Withers were the curators of Savage Thrones, an exhibition of ‘Fourteen avant-garde designers from Europe’. It took place on the ground floor of the Shiseido department store, in Ginza, Tokyo. Jasper showed the Wingnut Chair and for the first time the Thinking Man’s Chair. He did not travel to Tokyo for the exhibition. Nigel Coates and Tom Dixon were also among the participants. The above photograph appeared in an article about the exhibition in a Japanese magazine. The torn pages are the only documentation we have of it.
The flyer for Savage Thrones.
Inside the exhibition’s catalogue.
Jasper wrote a piece for the exhibition, titled in this draft as ‘On the Bottom of a Glass’. It was printed in Japanese at the front of the catalogue with his biography. The printed version of the biography is slightly different to the draft below. Under the heading ‘Details of Chairs’, he made this request to the organisers: ‘For the exhibition could I specify that a half empty bottle of Spanish red wine be placed on the right hand table and an almost empty glass of wine be put on the left table.’ The picture of the exhibition above suggests that the request was not wholly fulfilled.
Draft of the texts submitted for the exhibition catalogue.
