SoraNews24 —Japan News—

Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.

TOP

» Japan
» Daiso will help you warp your reflection with a psychedelic infinity mirror for under five bucks!

Featured

Weird
Studio Ghibli
Jobs

Daiso will help you warp your reflection with a psychedelic infinity mirror for under five bucks!

Katy Kelly Mar 5, 2020
Tweet

Japan’s economical provider of weird products does it again, with a battery powered infinity mirror light. Who doesn’t need one of those?

Contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama is known for many incredible psychedelic pieces, but her Infinity Mirror rooms have enjoyed continuous popularity ever since her first installment in 1965.

https://twitter.com/weird_sci/status/1215744901557649408

By reflecting reflections of a small area, Kusama creates virtual space in limitless amounts. The objects suspended within that space replicate to an absurd degree, kaleidoscoping outwards to craft patterns well beyond the limits of the artist’s own productivity. Are those spaces real? Do we, ourselves, become part of that art by stepping inside?

Our Japanese-language reporter Go Hatori sought all these answers and more, but rather than go all the way to Kusama’s Zero is Infinity exhibition and shell out 1,100 yen (US$10.27) for a ticket he elected to purchase two Infinity Mirror Lights for his own home. Naturally, he bought them from discount retailer Daiso, home of the Light Up Poop Stick and the miniature battery-powered washing machine.

▼ How could one possibly pick between a heart or pineapple shaped mirror light?

Go set up his new purchase quickly. In its naked, newly-opened form, his heart mirror light looked like a plain old mirror.

▼ Great shape, though.

But just add in three AA batteries and flick the switch…and hey, presto!

▼ Now that’s what I call a mirror light!

The real magic occurs when you shift your vision to the side. The lights reflect on eternally inside the glassy walls of the mirror, on and on, over and over, into a maddening eternity…

▼ A tunnel of love? Or a tunnel of light?

How did it look through the lens of a vibrant neon pineapple? Go made sure to test that out extensively, too.

▼ I have a light, I have a pineapple. Uh. Pineapple light.

Before long, Go was creating gorgeous retrowave aesthetics in his own home, and even combined the two lights to form an impossible infinity bridge.

What a rush! Before Go could get too carried away, however, his eye fell on the discarded packaging for both mirror lights. Ah…yes. The sad fact is that while Daiso is most famous for being a 100-yen store, with product prices befitting that title, in recent years, with the steady creep of inflation and an increase on consumption tax, Daiso has taken to selling products of a higher caliber. Some cost 300 yen, others 500 yen…

▼ Each of these mirror lights cost 500 yen, meaning Go really only saved 100 yen on that Yayoi Kusama museum ticket.

There were even more surprises in store. As Go looked at the packages again, he realized…

These lights weren’t made by Daiso at all!

▼ They were made by an Osaka-based company called Green Ornament!

Green Ornament are actually a pretty reputable brand, at least in the world of 100-yen electronics. Go had actually purchased their various wares before from 100-yen stores and been pleased with their quality. These mirror lamps, too, had met his expectations… But wasn’t part of the charm of Daiso that the items within it were Daiso-brand, Daiso-made, Daiso-sold?

Then Go had an epiphany. Up until now, he had assumed that all the items he had purchased from Daiso had been made by Daiso, but now he realized that other economical retailers had the opportunity to sell their wares through Daiso itself. No longer confined to the limits of a 100-yen price tag, and with the ability to sell other retailers’ merchandise through their store, the possibilities for Daiso’s stock would be truly…

Infinite.

What a thought! What heights could Daiso reach, given access to the world’s wealth of manufacturers? What future chaos might be brought to the same shelves that stocked the Face Trainer, the chuckable ball of feces and the hair-drying glove? We can’t wait to explore this surreal future world and its infinite fractal of product opportunities, and we’re sure Go will be there to try as many as he possibly can.

Images © SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
[ Read in Japanese ]