Ordinarily, the last thing you'd want in an art or design gallery is a working ping-pong table — bats and balls, however light, and energetic games of table tennis aren't good companions to fragile, rare or precious art.
But exceptions can be made when the table itself is part of an exhibition which honours the dual achievements of one of Japan's most important designers. He's Katsumi Asaba, a typographer and master calligrapher who also holds the title of sixth degree master in table tennis from the Japan Table Tennis Association.
It means visitors to Ponsonby's Objectspace gallery can view Asaba's typographic posters then play ping-pong on the "Asaba Table" — an interactive sculpture designed by Dean Poole of Auckland creative agency, Alt Group. Objectspace director Kim Paton says it's an incredible tribute from one designer to another.
But there's more to it than simply playing a game. Poole, who's known Asaba for several years, has reinvented the standard ping-pong table in a project he describes as part science experiment and part musical instrument.
Positioned in the middle of Objectspace, it looks like an ever-so-sleek futuristic ping-pong table but there's a welter of computer components, circuits and compressed air cleverly concealed beneath it.
