Interview with Kumi Yamashita

Variously shaped objects are installed on the wall. Lights shining on these objects bring forth shadows which float on the wall; the side of a face, a walking figure, and a young girl sitting, amongst others. At first, I thought my eyes were deceiving me when I saw the mysterious sight. This was the fantastic world created by New York City-based artist Kumi Yamashita. In spite of appearing on Japanese television programs such as “Kiseki Taiken Unbelievable” and “Friday SMAP,” and being showered with attention, she remains natural and honest. I had the opportunity to have an exclusive interview with her for the first time for a magazine at her studio in New York.

COOL: First, tell me about your background please, Kumi.

Kumi Yamashita: After graduating middle school, I entered high school, but I soon went to America as a foreign exchange student. After that, I spent some time in Italy before returning to America, where I graduated from college. On a visit to Scotland, I was enchanted by the buildings of Glasgow University, and I entered their graduate program just like that.

COOL: When did you first take an interest in art?

Kumi: I’m not sure, but if I had to say, I think it dates back to pre-school. I really like drawing pictures, and was always drawing. I remember being praised by my mother and teacher for drawing my mother’s face and painting her hair purple (laughing). If, at that time, I had been pushed toward drawing properly or by the book, I might not be the person that I am now.

COOL: How was your concept of art using shadow born?

Kumi: I’m not really conscious of ‘when’ in this case either. I guess I’ve always been enchanted by the concept of light and shadow. As I watched the sky as the sun set, I would announce the changes one by one to my mother. I found those changing shapes and shadows beautiful. I often discover beautiful things in nature. I think a lot of people are that way, but I have a particular tendency to take a special interest in this beauty.

COOL: Recently, you’ve become a popular topic in Japanese media. Has anything changed around you?

Kumi: Absolutely not. I didn’t even know I was a topic. I just have the chance to hear impressions I had never thought of. It’s really interesting to hear all the different viewpoints about my own work. Sometimes, when I hear the opinions of third parties, I think to myself, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s it!” (laughing).

COOL: How was it appearing on Japanese television programs?

Kumi: Tiring. I have to carry everything over from New York, then work all night to set everything up in the studio. My work has to be constructed on the site in line with the light. Of course, each work is a little different each time. I can never make exactly the same one twice.

COOL: How did you get the offer from the Japanese television station?

Kumi: Probably someone from the station saw my work on the web. Also, I only got my solo exhibition in San Francisco because, coincidentally, one of the judges at an open exhibition I applied for had connections with that museum. And that led to the exhibition in New York. I’m no good at self-management.

COOL: What’s your source of inspiration?

Kumi: Always being happy. If I am happy, ideas naturally spring forth. The more I try to think of good ideas, the worse my work is. The times when I am making good art are the times when I am enjoying making it. If this feeling starts to crumble even a little, I stop working and do something completely different. For example, I’ll participate in a wild flower picking tour in Central Park (laughing), and find that happy feeling in another field. For me, feeling happy is normal and, at the same time, very important.

COOL: Have any artists influenced you?

Kumi: I don’t much see other artists’ works, and I don’t really know, but if I had to, I would say I like Pheidias, a sculptor that worked on the Greek Parthenon. I became interested in him after hearing about an episode that occurred when he was working on the sculptures on the roof of the temple. Pheidias completed the sculptures on the eaves of the Parthenon in Athens. But, the Athenian accountant complained angrily about the bill, saying that, ‘The backs of the sculptures can’t be seen. Why would you carve something that can’t be seen and include it in the bill.” Pheidias replied, “That’s not true. The gods can see them.” After hearing this, I immediately liked Pheidias. More than his work itself, I am moved by his dedication to his work.

COOL: Why did you move to New York?

Kumi: I grew up watching Sesame Street, so I naturally always had an interest (in New York). I thought New York would be hard if I came when I was older, so I moved here about two years ago. I didn’t really come to see art. To tell the truth, I was really scared at first. But actual life here was natural, so it was enjoyable. No one is really a foreigner here. So it’s possible to come into contact with people on a personal level. That might be one reason it’s fun.

COOL: How do you make your art?

Kumi: How… Like I said before, the most important thing for my doing my work is that I always feel happy. If this isn’t the case, I definitely can’t make anything that will satisfy me. When I’m happy, ideas come to me naturally. I don’t consciously think about ideas. Ideas just pop up, and I sketch them on paper. After that, I move toward making them into real works. First I set the pieces up on the floor with light coming from the side. When I’m finished with that, I move them up onto the wall.

COOL: The shape of the shadows and the shape of the base you make are completely different, as if the concrete was being born from the abstract. Where did this conception come from?

Kumi: First, I use real shadows as a model. Then I create my base for the shadow. I’m a very concrete person, so I really respect abstract artists. I know nothing about the abstract world (laughing). I have no idea where the conceptions for my art come from. It seems like they just fall from the sky, and then my hand notices them and moves itself.

COOL: Do you use computer graphics or blueprints?

Kumi: I am a very analog person, so I’m not very good with computers. I can send e-mail (laughing), but my work is all done by hand. I like to use pencils. I guess I haven’t made much progress since pre-school (laughing).

COOL: What is ‘art’ for you?

Kumi: Recently, in a conversation with a friend, we accidentally discovered that ‘art’ is an ‘act of God.’ As I’m creating my art, I always think it’s not really me creating it. It’s something in a higher place, whether it’s God or something else. My work must be a revelation from something beyond myself.

COOL: Tell us what you plan to do next and in the future.

Kumi: I have no idea (laughing). I haven’t really thought about how to develop my work. But I’m always thinking about how to enjoy life since living happily provides my inspiration and is the source of my art. As long as I continue to create quality art, I think my development will naturally spread in good directions. Is that too optimistic? (laughing)

Interview by Sai Morikawa

Miwa Yanagi

“Elevator Girl” is a huge CG-based installation that covers the whole wall of a gallery. Identically uniformed elevator girls strike separate poses in a world of virtual reality, which is elaborately crafted like a movie set. “Fairy Tale”, a series of silver halide prints in which young girls with faces of old ladies express their inner fantasies, is humorous yet ferocious. They give you striking impressions as if you have entered into a haunted house. In contrast, in “My grandmothers” series, Yanagi had models wear prosthetic makeup and visualized their own images of ‘themselves 50 years later. ’

Eternal City I, 1998 ©Miwa Yanagi

Miwa Yanagi, an art creator from Kyoto, Japan, held the first solo exhibition in New York this year. With her voracious thirst for self-expression and creation, and her stoic attitude towards arts as a genuine creator, she is rather an ‘art creator’ than just an ‘artist.’ Still, she admitted that becoming an art creator wasn’t her goal at first.

While in college, she studied Japanese traditional industrial arts. As she started to feel impatient with its fixed production process, she began working on installations using fabrics when she was enrolled in graduate school. She produced new things one after another, using materials in her own way to grope for the possibility of self-expression. However, she stopped all the productions upon the graduation as she lost her eagerness for creation. In the following 3 years, she worked as a teacher of art history, going back and forth from class to home.

Everyday, she repeated the commutes and the lectures at class again and again. In the closed society in Japan, she lost her identity and just kept her routine. That reality of hers is reflected in the “Elevator girl”series.

For Yanagi, whose daily routine was to create art pieces while in school, the fact that she stopped any productions was taking a load on her mind. Meanwhile, she got interested in transportation systems and commercial facilities that she saw during her commute, the consumptions and the labors in there, and the people who had to live up to the society’s stereotypes. The reason that she symphonized with elevator girls could be that she might have seen herself as an art history teacher in them, who goes up and down, opens and closes doors, and repeats courtesy announcements all day in the closed space like ‘elevators’

“I simply wanted to have them as a motif in my work.” This single motive brought out her eagerness for creation, which was smoldering in her. She rented a gallery space without any specific plans, and started working with elevator girls. That’s how her first art series “elevator girls” started.

In an elevator hall which was installed in the gallery, the elevator girls just kept smiling. She attempted to express the boredom, and intoxication of people day, who unconsciously acquired the way to live comfortably in a closed community like Japan’s modern society. In reality, ‘elevator girls’ first turned out to be different from the image that she originally had, which was the inorganic world with lifeless dolls; it had too much of a reality as there were real human and unexpected things that were out of control happening during the making. From there, she decided to try on composite photographs to control the reality that she wanted to express.

Series of Fairy Tale: Gretel, 2004 ©Miwa Yanagi

A curator from overseas, who was visiting Japan for research, discovered here talent and gave her a chance. She was given a chance to join an exhibition outside Japan.

Yanagi joined the huge international exhibition “Prospect ‘96” in Germany (1996 being the year), at the curator’s recommendation. When we asked how she felt about joining the international scene at that time, to our surprise, she says, “I wasn’t aware of the art scenes overseas and I didn’t know what an art creator was. I didn’t even know artists sell their works and they make a living by it. When someone who liked my work asked me if I could sell it them, I didn’t know what they meant (laugh).”

It is just recently that there are increasing numbers of art creators who make a living by selling their works as there are more commercial art galleries, influenced by those in Japan and the West. Also, there are trends of supporting new art creators and young aspiring art creators. Now they are all actively marketing themselves over the world. Until the beginning of the 90’s, however, when it comes to ‘galleries,’ most of them were rentals. At that time, Yanagi was a student studying the industrial arts, which was isolated from a contemporary art scene, and happened to join the exhibition without looking at herself as an art creator. She started gaining attentions in Europe, and foundations like Deutsche bank and museums began collecting her works. After the year 2000, she created new series such as “My Grandmothers” and “Fairy Tale.”

Series of Fairy Tale: The Little Match Girl, 2005 ©Miwa Yanagi

“The reaction to the previous work creates the next work.” The recurrence from conceptual works to polytechnic works. Going back and forth, Yanagi takes back the essence of her own, the creation.

‘I don’t want to keep doing the things I like.’ She intentionally ended her favorite ‘Fairy Tale’ series. Doing your favorite things is surely fun and enriches your skill. But if you keep on doing the same thing blindly, you will be exclusive and won’t progress. She dares to stop because she likes them. She remarks that it is important to ‘question yourself and the necessity of your work and try something new.’

When asked for a message for the fans, she laughed with a smile. “When I go to a lecture, oftentimes people tell me, ‘I liked the previous series, but the new series is totally different.’ Whenever creators bring out new stuff, it’s the scariest moment for creators but at the same time it’s the juiciest moment for the audience. It’s time for a dialog, that won’t be cozy with predictable stuff, to be focused. ” Her creative process will never be in patterns as she is always seeking for a new start. Therefore, she always does the reverse of what fans expect her to do. That is definitely one of her appeals as an art creator. And we are secretly looking forward to her new work and the ‘reverse.’

When asked what she wants to do other than art, she answered, “I might try something that will bring back the physicality. I didn’t care about my physical health too long. And it will eventually be for the creations, of course.” We thought we asked a question about a hobby other than art, but the answer was, naturally, about an art. This is just like Yanagi.

Text by Sei Koike, Photo by Akiko Tohno

COOL Vol.15 COMING SOON!!

■■■COOL Vol.15 Spring Issue Contents■■■

☆Special feature　Interview with Chris Jordan




☆Special report　MAKING A HOME @ Japan Society



☆Dia: Beacon Part2

☆A Sight of Cross-Cultural City vol.01
"European Design Culture 2007" - from Tokyo

☆Tokyo bar

☆INDIE NEXT GENERATION 2

☆Attention！What's your "ECO" ? - The nomadic "decob"

☆The Worldwide Art Views
Asian Contemporary Art Fair (NY)
New Design High School "Rooftop Legend" (NY)
Exposition d’illustration HAZUKI SEKINE (Switzerland)
Rules to follow and pills to swallow (Switzerland)
「 I Have A Dream - 我有一个梦想」Nam Hyojun (Shanghai)
ECO@ASIANIZM (Japan)

☆Look! Look! Art Books

☆Galleries of The World – Clockwork gallery (Berlin)

☆Chinese Art Now Vol. 4　「Beijing 798 Art District」

☆The Diary of a Nomadic Artist Vol. 1 「Berlin: City of Artists」

☆Film Freaks Scene 9 「Movie Magazine Scene Around The World」

☆Toronto Art Report #6　「Art Capital City Toronto」

☆Random Music Access Track 7　「2008 Music Projections」

☆NY Style #4　「Current Trends – The American Traditional」