A free man. (Urban by Design)

After a tumultuous weekend spent in jail over an art installation gone wrong (or a city still a little too on edge), Takeshi Miyakawa was released into the world, relieved but also a little bit shaken.

The soft-spoken Brooklyn-based Japanese designer still did not know his fate after his I [heart] NY shopping bag lights had him suspected of planting bombs in his adopted borough, but last week, a judge let him go with only minimal punishment.

In an email to friends and supporters, Mr. Miyakawa revealed that he would have to do 10 months community service for the incident—perhaps cleaning up plastic bags and other trash in the local park?

"Now I feel relieved that this issue has been resolved and I don't have to go to court anymore," he wrote. "All that's left is for me to stay out of trouble for 6 months!!"

A 311 call quickly spiraled out of control when it was forward to the police in may, who thought an errant plastic bag with LEDs inside could explode at any minute. When Mr. Miyakawa was spotted later that day hanging another bag near McCarren Park, the police swooped in and he was hit with a number of felony charges that could have stuck him in jail for months.

Hopefully the whole ordeal has not stifled the designers creativity.

Free, man. (Matt Chaban)

An artist embraced.

Louis Lin, who led the #freetakeshi campaign.

Takeshi Miyakawa was released from custody a little after 4:30 this afternoon. The Greenpoint-based designer spent the past four nights behind bars for hanging I [heart] New York shopping bags, illuminated from within by an LED matrix of his own design, on trees and lamp posts around North Brooklyn.

So, does Mr. Miyakawa still love New York? “Yes, I do,” he said as a pack of reporters gathered around him outside Brooklyn Supreme Court on Jay Street, a few long blocks from the Manhattan Bridge. It was an odder than usual scene, just so, for the media scrum outside the halls of justice, with the impromptu press conference being conducted in equal parts English and Japanese, Mr. Miyakawa speaking softly either way.

He wore the same mint-green button-up shirt and baggy nylon cargo pants he had been arrested in at 2 a.m. on Saturday morning, after cops spotted him hanging one of his pieces at the corner of Bedford and Lorimer Avenues. A similar piece he placed early Friday morning on Bedford and North Sixth Street got three surrounding blocks shut down when a curious 311 call turned into a zealous 911 response.

“I was in shock,” Mr. Miyakawa said of his arrest, “but I was more in shock that people in Williamsburg were locked down for two hours, and I really want to apologize to them.”

One reporter asked what Mr. Miyakawa would be doing next, and while he seemed to mean the designer’s next steps in his legal defense, Mr. Miyakawa had more immediate things on his mind. "I just want to take a long bath," he said, "and have a beer."

At first it sounded like this might be the end of Mr. Miyakawa's career in public art, but he has not totally given up on what he said is very important work for him. "Not anymore," Mr. Miyakawa said, then added after a pause, "Not in this way. I'll get the permits first." Assuming, of course, he ever could get the city to cooperate with him after the stir he caused.

Mr. Miyakawa said that the most gratifying part of his ordeal was the overwhelming response it received online, both as a work of art and design and also as a piece of civic pride. It was true even here on Jay Street. While reporters were milling around for an hour and a half outside, awaiting the designer's release, numerous passersby asked who they were waiting for, and when told, a number of them had indeed heard of the case. "Good for him," one gentleman said.

Mr. Miyakawa stressed that he had not done this for the attention, though. "I didn't do this to get you, to get the media attention," he said. He said he was not sure if he would be suing the city for an unjust incarceration and would instead focus on the upcoming trial, which is scheduled for June 21. Until that time, Mr. Miyakawa is out without bail.

He still has to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, a prospect that seemed to puzzle him. "I was totally surprised," Mr. Miyakawa said of the initial denial of bail at his Sunday morning arraignment. "Do I look like an insane person? I'm quite eccentric, but not insane. But then again, you never know what a judge will think."

As the press conference wound down, Mr.Miyakawa's supports, a good 15 of them, burst into applause, along with a number of the Japanese reporters, who also bowed in appreciation for the newly free man's time. Like the police, he would get no such courtesy from the local press.

Louis Lin, a friend of Mr. Miyakawa and his greatest champion throughout his incarceration. was standing nearby, wearing an I [heart] Takeshi t-shirt. He was still in awe of the entire turn of events. "I appreciate the response by the police, they did their jobs, they had to," he said. "The simple thing is that it didn't need to escalate the way it did, though. You approach the guy, you figure it out."

Still, he felt the right message had been sent, by Mr. Miyakawa and by the rest of the city. "I feel hopeful," Mr. Lin said. "The way everybody responded, this experience showed that the people and the community still understand each other and love other, which is the spirit of New York that Takeshi loves."

Mr. Miyakawa agreed. "I did this because everything at design week takes place inside a convention center or a warehouse," he said. "I thought it would be interesting to bring it outside and communicate with people, get them connected with design."

Communicate he did.

Free, man. (Matt Chaban)

An artist embraced.

Louis Lin, who led the #freetakeshi campaign.

Takeshi Miyakawa was released from custody a little after 4:30 this afternoon. The Greenpoint-based designer spent the past four nights behind bars for hanging I [heart] New York shopping bags, illuminated from within by an LED matrix of his own design, on trees and lamp posts around North Brooklyn.

So, does Mr. Miyakawa still love New York? “Yes, I do,” he said as a pack of reporters gathered around him outside Brooklyn Supreme Court on Jay Street, a few long blocks from the Manhattan Bridge. It was an odder than usual scene, just so, for the media scrum outside the halls of justice, with the impromptu press conference being conducted in equal parts English and Japanese, Mr. Miyakawa speaking softly either way.

He wore the same mint-green button-up shit and baggy nylon cargo pants he had been arrested in at 2 a.m. on Saturday morning, after cops spotted him hanging one of his pieces at the corner of Bedford and Lorimer Avenues. A similar piece he placed early Friday morning on Bedford and North Sixth Street got three surrounding blocks shut down when a curious 311 call turned into a zealous 911 response.

“I was in shock,” Mr. Miyakawa said of his arrest, “but I was more in shock that people in Williamsburg were locked down for two hours, and I really want to apologize to them.”

One reporter asked what Mr. Miyakawa would be doing next, and while he seemed to mean the designer’s next steps in his legal defense, Mr. Miyakawa had more immediate things on his mind. "I just want to take a long bath," he said, "and have a beer."

At first it sounded like this might be the end of Mr. Miyakawa's career in public art, but he has not totally given up on what he said is very important work for him. "Not anymore," Mr. Miyakawa said, then added after a pause, "Not in this way. I'll get the permits first." Assuming, of course, he ever could get the city to cooperate with him after the stir he caused.

Mr. Miyakawa said that the most gratifying part of his ordeal was the overwhelming response it received online, both as a work of art and design and also as a piece of civic pride. It was true even here on Jay Street. While reporters were milling around for an hour and a half outside, awaiting the designer's release, numerous passersby asked who they were waiting for, and when told, a number of them had indeed heard of the case. "Good for him," one gentleman said.

Mr. Miyakawa stressed that he had not done this for the  attention, though. "I didn't do this to get you, to get the media attention," he said. He said he was not sure if he would be suing the city for an unjust incarceration and would instead focus on the upcoming trial, which is scheduled for June 21. Until that time, Mr. Miyakawa is out without bail.

He still has to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, a prospect that seemed to puzzle him. "I was totally surprised," Mr. Miyakawa said of the initial denial of bail at his Sunday morning arraigment. "Do I look like an insane person? I'm quite execentric, but not insane. But then again, you never know what a judge will think."

As the press conference wound down, Mr.Miyakawa's supports, a good 15 of them, burst into applause, along with a number of the Japanese reporters, who also bowed in appreciation for the newly free man's time. Like the police, he would get no such courtesy from the local press.

Louis Lin, a friend of Mr. Miyakawa and his greatest champion throughout his incarceration. was standing nearby, wearing an I [heart] Takeshi t-shirt. He was still in awe of the entire turn of events. "I appreciate the response by the police, they did their jobs, they had to," he said. "The simple thing is that it didn't need to escalate the way it did, though. You approach the guy, you figure it out."

Still, he felt the right message had been sent, by Mr. Miyakawa and by the rest of the city. "I feel hopeful," Mr. Lin said. "The way everybody responded, this experience showed that the people and the community still understand each other and love other, which is the spirit of New York that Takeshi loves."

Mr. Miyakawa agreed. "I did this because everything at design week takes place inside a convention center or a warehouse," he said. "I thought it would be interesting to bring it outside and communicate with people, get them connected with design."

Communicate he did.

The cops bagged him. (Courtesy Louis Lim)

It was the glowing plastic bag seen round the world.

Over the weekend, Takeshi Miyakawa was arrest for his clever I [heart] NY shopping bag installation, which was mistaken for a bomb by the police on two occasions, the first of which shut down Bedford Avenue.

Rather than releasing Mr. Miyakawa on $250,000 bail Sunday morning, as the Kings County District Attorney recommended, the presiding judge at his arraignment ordered him remanded into custody for mental evaluation, which could keep him behind bars for up to a month.

Today, another Brooklyn judge will decide whether or not Mr. Miyakawa, who has been in prison for almost five days now despite reports of his cooperation, can go free.The hearing is expected at 2:30 p.m. The Observer will be in the courtroom, live tweeting the proceedings. Look for #freetakeshi for updates. (Not passing judgment, it's just that hashtag already exists, and you have to admit it has a nice ring to it.)

"Hopefully, he'll be getting out without bail on his own recognizance, given what's happened so far," Louis Lim, a friend and mentee of the designer, told The Observer. "But that's up to the prosecution and the judge. We just want to see him set free, bail or no bail."

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Red alert. (Courtesy Louis Lim)

Mr. Miyakawa planting one of his "bombs."

Plastic shopping bags, the city's dandruff, get stuck in trees and wrapped around light poles all the time.

Rarely do they cause a bomb scare.

But that is what happened on Friday morning, shortly after 10:30 a.m. According to Gothamist, someone had simply called 311 to complain about a bag a gentleman had recently deposited into a tree on Beford Avenue and inquire about its removal.The 311 dispatcher, apparently spooked by the description of an installation by Brooklyn designer Takeshi Miyakawa—an I [heart] NY plastic shopping bag with a wire hanging out—directed the annoyed neighbor to call 911.

The cops showed up, then the fire department, the the bomb squad, which shut down Bedford from North Fourth Street to North Seventh Street for two hours.

Each May for New York Design Week, Mr. Miyakawa has made various installations throughout  Manhattan and Brooklyn to coincide with the annual festivities, including a floating chair that, like the bags, glowed. It was a spirited—if unsanctioned, but also generally harmless—effort. The installations had gained a modicum of notoriety within the art and design communities, but little notice elsewhere. This year, the work got him thrown in jail, for up to a month, if not longer.

“It’s his way of raising awareness for design week," Louis Lim said yesterday of Mr. Miyakawa, his friend and mentor. "He felt there was no real public spirit for design week, like there is in Milan, or Paris for fashion week, where it’s an event and everyone is excited.”

People certainly got excited over the weekend, but certainly not in the way Mr. Miyakawa intended.

Twelve hours after the incident on Bedford Ave, around 2 a.m., Mr. Miyakawa, apparently ignorant of the scene he had caused earlier in the day, was hanging another of his installations from a light post in Greenpoint, at the corner of Bedford and Lorimer, across from McCarren Park. Those ominous wires connected to a small LED packet that would illuminate the bag. "It was his way of expressing love for the city and for design," Mr. Lim said.

The cops, however, did not love it, and arrested Mr. Miyakawa. He was charged with two counts each—one for the morning incident, one for the night time—of reckless endangerment in the first degree, placing a false bomb or hazardous material in the first degree, placing a false bomb or hazardous material in the second degree, reckless endangerment in the second degree and criminal nuisance in the second degree.

Mr. Miyakawa was arraigned on Sunday morning, when Brooklyn Judge Martin Murphy rejected a $250,000 bond offer from the district attorney's office and remanded him to custody for a psychiatric evaluation of up to 30 days. Police report that Mr. Miyakawa was cooperative and there was no imminent danger presented by his installation. The judge made no comment as to his orders, according to those present for the arraignment.

It is probably the most notable artistic use of a an I [heart] NY shopping bag since Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls, wherein one of the characters suffocates himself with one.

"This was not a guy who wanted to blow anyone up," Mr. Miyakawa's attorney, Deborah Blum, said of her client. She filed a writ of habeus corpus today, hoping for her clients hasty release, but does not expect any action at least until tomorrow. Until that time, Mr. Miyakawa, who is well known for the furniture he makes out of a Greenpoint studio, as well as for making models for noted architect Rafael Viñoly, will be locked away in Rikers.

"He did this even with all the negative energy in the city," Mr. Lim said. "It was his way of trying to keep us from being beaten down."