Description

This is one of the poster calendars published by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York from 1984 to 1988. From 1989 to 1991, it was published by Alphabet Gallery, which Igarashi was the director of (the 1991 edition is composed of past works). The 622 numbers used to indicate the 365 days were all designed differently according to the theme of each month, and as a result, 4,356 three-dimensional numbers using axonometric drawing were completed in seven years. When Igarashi began this work, he gave himself several conditions. These were that the two-dimensional shape of the numbers had to be the same, that a space grid of the XYZ axes in 5mm units had to be used, and that they had to be created by hand (only part of the original drawing for the 1987 edition was computer-generated). To achieve this enormous task, Igarashi also devised tools and processes, such as preparing a mount with the two-dimensional shapes printed on it and a compass opened in 5mm increments. This is Igarashi’s representative work, which moves lightly between two-dimensional and three-dimensional, from graphics to sculpture.