In January 2018, New York street cleaners were fascinated to find Dai Fujiwara in Times Square vacuuming up garbage in the frigid cold. “They said, ‘Dai, what are you doing?’” the Japanese design giant recalls, laughing. “I spent a week in Manhattan, cleaning up. I went to Liberty Island, Wall Street, Times Square and Broadway, and some of the parks. The cleaners were really interested in the handheld vacuum. They liked it very much.” Fujiwara repeated the exercise in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, and on the Mongolian steppe, where he collected hair from yaks, sheep and cashmere goats. The detritus was then spun into yarn. Four “Grassland Sweaters” and four “Urban Sweaters” are the result. For that project Fujiwara focused on the question of waste and the future of the fashion industry and fast fashion. Was it possible to make garments from garbage? Will robots someday be gathering wool? His findings form part of an exhibition at the Hong Kong Design Institute in Tseung Kwan O titled “Dai Fujiwara: The Road of My Cyber Physical Hands”, which explores technology and the human touch in his art and design. Fur shed by animals, he believes, is not, and should not be, waste. To make his point about the wisdom of circular economies, he used a drone to detect the location of the fallen animal hair on the Mongolian plain. The information was then transmitted to his hi-tech goggles. “There is no garbage in nature, but there is garbage in the space where people live, so it’s a sort of comparison,” he said, by Zoom from Tokyo. “Maybe it will happen in the distant future, or perhaps it’s just around the corner, but I think it would be wonderful if an era came in which the word ‘waste’ no longer exists, because this would be proof that human beings are using their wisdom to create a recycling-oriented society.” A more recent work, consisting of garments made from fabric painted by a guided drone instead of by hand, was inspired by French artist Henri Matisse, who at various times throughout his career sketched with charcoal attached to the end of a long stick. Matisse found the method helpful when creating bigger-scale studies for large artworks – such as The Dance , a 1932 triptych for the Barnes Foundation in Pennsylvania, in the United States – rather than the usual practice of referring to small sketches. Fujiwara considered Matisse’s stick a device, a sort of extension of the hand, and updated the concept for the technology age by incorporating the use of devices such as drones, calling them his “cyber physical hands”. He seamlessly uses both manual and digital methods in his art and design. For years now, Fujiwara has carried watercolours everywhere he goes, painting chips until he achieves the exact hue he sees with his eye, a process he calls “colour hunting”. Fujiwara colour-hunted the skin tones of babies to create ultra-soft earphone pads produced by Foster Electric Company. For the exhibit, students at Hiko Mizuno College of Jewellery in Tokyo incorporated the pads into earphones they designed as earring-like accessories in various shapes and materials. Hong Kong Design Institute students then styled these pieces on models and photographed them. One part of the show traces Fujiwara’s career trajectory chronologically. Amid rows of arches made of recycled polyester that Fujiwara created to evoke a welcoming, churchlike atmosphere, we see snippets from his early days as a design student, his independent art and public works projects, as well as his stints at major Japanese brands Issey Miyake and Muji. The breadth is astounding, from art installations to product design such as bags and shoes for Camper, to branding and packaging for the sweet potato snack brand Imoya Kaneki. He collaborated with Hitachi on the design of unmanned, cashless vegetable vending kiosks in a rural district to connect farmers with customers, and with Shiseido and eyewear maker JINS on eyeglass frames that enhance skin tones. Sketches of hangman-like stick figures are Fujiwara’s hand-drawn plans for Paris fashion shows, from his time as creative director of Issey Miyake from 2006 to 2011. He is also the mastermind behind that label’s A-POC (“a piece of cloth”) concept, introduced in 1997, and the Muji To Go line of lifestyle products. Fujiwara’s first solo show in Hong Kong, the exhibit was delayed from 2019, first by the city’s social unrest , and then by the coronavirus pandemic . “A double punch for me,” he said. Although he is currently unable to travel to the city in person, the wait has sweetened the experience. “That’s why I’m happy to have this exhibition in Hong Kong, and not in London or New York,” he said. “Because Hong Kong is one of the hottest places around these past two years.” Dai Fujiwara: The Road of My Cyber Physical Hands, at the HKDI Gallery of the Hong Kong Design Institute, 3 King Ling Road, Tiu Keng Leng, Tseung Kwan O, tel: 3928 2000. Ends on March 28. For information and bookings, visit www.hkdi.edu.hk/en/hkdi_gallery/