ARTIST INTERVIEW

Exclusive interview with artist Shinichi Wakasa

"The meaning of life in art that stimulates physical sensations"

Shinichi Wakasa solo exhibition "-Fantastic Wonders-"

<November 29, 2024 (Friday) - December 16, 2024 (Monday)>

The joy of living lies in using one's imagination to perceive things that cannot be seen with the naked eye and feeling them with one's whole body and soul. What does creating art mean to Shinichi Wakasa, who pursues Japanese sensibility and the universality of humanity?

--Why did you decide to pursue art?

I was in my second year of junior high school. I wanted to live a life where I could continue to feel alive, and at the time, soccer and art were the two things that allowed me to feel that reality. I thought that in soccer, I wouldn't be able to run as I got older, but in art, where there are no set answers, I could continue challenging myself for the rest of my life.

--You majored in Japanese painting at university. You experienced some setbacks there that helped you realize something.

I had been enrolled in university for nine years until I got my doctorate, and I thought I would become a professor's assistant, but that opportunity disappeared. I felt depressed, as if the ladder had been taken away from me, but I realized that even though I had been doing art because I wanted to live a realistic life, I had been aiming to become an artist for the Inten (Japan Art Academy Exhibition), and that I had ended up feeling like an office worker.

To begin with, I had doubts about the world of Japanese painting, where artists continue to paint the same subject matter with the same materials, and if you remove the name tag, you would never know who painted it. I agree with the ideas and philosophies of Yokoyama Taikan and Okakura Tenshin (who founded the Japan Art Institute), but the industry structure is so far removed from that that I felt like I had been brainwashed and my heart was suddenly ignited, thinking, "That's not what art is about."

--And then to become an artist.

Around that time, I came across a book called "Westerners See the Trees, Asians See the Forest." It said that "people are shaped by their climate," and that people are influenced not by their inherent inner qualities, but by external factors such as the environment in which they are born and raised and the people they meet.

Until then, I had believed that originality was important in art, and that artists were people who could create something from scratch, but I was able to change my perspective and realize that originality lies hidden in one's own experiences, which made things easier for me.

Looking back on my life, I was born and raised in a place close to the center of Hiroshima where there is a good balance between the sea, rivers, mountains and the city, but whenever I went to the mountains, I somehow had the sense of "thank you for coming," even though no one had taught me that. Perhaps it was related to the fact that I lost my father in an accident at sea when I was in elementary school, but I thought that humans are "living" as part of the vast nature.

--So you felt that you had a Japanese sensibility. And when you tried to express that, manga and anime were also part of the culture.

When I decided to become an artist, it was most important for me, someone who was born and raised in this era, to incorporate games and anime into my work. By doing so, I wanted to create a homage to Japanese art from before the Edo period, when Japan was Westernized.

What's meaningful is how I, who have studied Japanese art up until that point, view Japanese values and how I convey them to people living in the same era. I think that's what becomes part of history.

--Why did you use maneki-neko (beckoning cats), komainu (guardian lions), and lions as motifs?

Since ancient times, the Japanese have believed that gods reside in all things, and have coexisted with nature and animals in their daily lives by expressing their awe for them. Things like beckoning cats and lion-dogs have also taken root in the lives of people in each region as objects of prayer, and have continued to remain for 400 to 500 years. That is reality.

Without fear of being misunderstood, I think that when something is lost in what is called traditional culture, it is gone, but if people make an effort to preserve it, it can only be preserved for about half a century. What remains essentially is decided by history. That is what interests me.

As an artist and visual artist, I am always thinking about what is universal in human beings, and when it comes to expressing the "invisible," things that have remained in history like the maneki-neko cat and the komainu dog are realistic.

-- Something that has been recognized by history, which is the accumulation of people's lives. How would you describe it?

The theme of this exhibition is demons and monsters, in a meta sense of our fast-changing and ultra-chaotic modern world, but my works consistently express a fear of the invisible. My style is pop, and people find them cute, but some say they're scary; children approach them because they're colorful, but when they stand in front of them, they get frightened and stop moving; and I've also had customers cancel purchases at a later date. When I ask them why, they say, "My family got scared." I feel like my intentions are getting across.

--This is an experience that can only be had by seeing the actual work in person.

That is exactly what I am looking for, and I believe that there is meaning in my physical expression, whether it be painting or the woodcarvings I have been working on for the past three years. Perhaps the main aim of creating a work is to encourage a physical experience in the viewer. Without that, there is no point in expressing myself or looking at it. In fact, there is no point in living.

You could say that the work itself is giving off something, but the way it is seen and felt will change depending on the viewer's beliefs and physical condition on that day. Therefore, by confronting the work in the space in which it is placed, you should be able to exchange an overwhelming amount of information. That reality is extremely important, and I believe that thinking about something is the driving force of life and the meaning of life.

He has high hopes for technological advances, saying, "For example, if Apple Vision could be placed on a person's retina, perhaps our senses would change," but he says he can only find joy in living through primal experiences. For Wakasa, art is life itself.

The "Shinichi Wakasa Exhibition - Fantastic Monsters -" will be held from Friday, November 29th to Monday, December 16th.

ABOUT ARTIST

Shinichi Wakasa
Shinichi Wakasa
Shinichi Wakasa
Born in Hiroshima Prefecture in 1982. Graduated from Hiroshima City University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Fine Arts, majoring in Japanese painting, in 2008. Completed the master's course at the same university's graduate school in 2010, and completed the doctoral course in 2013. His graduation project was purchased by the university as the top student. In the same year, he won the runner-up prize in the Monthly Art Newcomer Award "Debut". Since then, while exhibiting his works both in Japan and overseas, he has also collaborated with many companies, including traditional craftsmanship "Chososho", New York fashion brand "sawa takai", and "MEMUSE" by Risa Aizawa of Dempagumi.inc.
To the artist page

ABOUT EXHIBITION

Exhibition

Shinichi Wakasa Exhibition "Fantastic Mystery" [Tokyo]

Venue

YUGEN Gallery
KD Minami Aoyama Building 4F, 3-1-31 Minamiaoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Dates

Friday, November 29, 2024 – Monday, December 16, 2024

Opening Hours

Weekdays: 13:00-19:00
Weekends and holidays: 13:00-20:00
*Ends at 17:00 on the final day only

Closed Days

None

Reception Dates

Reception: Friday, November 29th, 6pm - 8pm

MONTHLY WAKASA: December 2nd (Monday) 19:00-23:00

Date of presence

Friday, November 29th, Saturday, November 30th, Sunday, December 1st, Saturday, December 7th, Sunday, December 8th, Saturday, December 14th, Sunday, December 15th

I plan to be in the gallery from 13:00 to 17:00 for the entire event.

Admission Fee

free

Notes

*Please note that the dates and opening hours may change without notice depending on the situation.

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