ARTIST INTERVIEW

ーー -- The way the decorated head dresses are displayed, allowing you to see them from behind, gives off a grotesque impression.

A headdress is an alter ego, something that is more like you than you are. Showing its backside is like showing the backside of your skin. The trigger for this exhibition method was an exhibition at Laforet Harajuku about 20 years ago. I was asked to exhibit interesting headdresses, cute things, and surprising things, but for me, taking off my headdress was not an easy task, as it would turn the world upside down.

I couldn't take off my headdress and exhibit it as an object. When I thought about what I could express there, I came up with Vivienne Sato's "Absence." The headdress is a pseudo-scalp, and looking at it from behind a transparent acrylic wall also means looking at the world upside down. It presents "absence/non-presence" and at the same time looking at things from the back.

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ーー What does the theme of your work as an artist, "absence," represent?

It is an idea that lies far beyond existence. Something that is not in front of you but suggests an ideal. I presented a work in which images used in the Rorschach test, a type of psychological test, are displayed across an entire wall. Each piece is made by dripping ink onto a small piece of paper folded in half to make the shape symmetrical, but no two pieces are the same. I arranged them repeatedly on a wall several meters wide. I thought that the ideal shape might exist beyond the gallery wall, at infinity.

ーー The "aura portrait" drawn in person also evokes such an identity that lies somewhere far away.

I draw a picture in about 20 minutes. There may be some lies in it, but as I express my feelings and private life that I have never shared with my family or close friends, I can see the person changing, and I draw the ever-changing colors. In this day and age, it is rare to meet someone for the first time and talk to them one-on-one for 20 to 30 minutes, so creating such a situation is itself a work of art.

I think that forming relationships, whether romantic or friendship, means hurting each other to some extent. Contact that goes beyond the skin and injures the mucous membranes, blood, and the underside of the body. Aura's portraits are painted with watercolors, and the wet texture of the paper and palette makes me think of damaged, rough skin and scars breaking out. And when the painting dries, it becomes a scab.

Previous aura portraits

ーー It's very interesting how you express the rawness of human relationships through the texture of your paintings. Why do you use a variety of techniques, including calligraphy, sculpture, and video, in addition to painting?

I am interested in crossing dimensions using various parameters. What will be born from the transformation through the parameter called myself? I hope that crossing dimensions will change the way we see things.

Even in film criticism, I don't speak on behalf of what the director or producer wants to say; rather, I extract things that even the creators themselves don't notice and draw supporting lines from a different angle.

In that sense, in my own exhibitions, I sometimes display reference images and drawings (that serve as rough sketches) that I used as references when creating my works. I think interpreting works exhibited in museums and galleries is very similar to the process of solving a crime in a suspense drama. There are often scenes in dramas where photos of evidence left at the crime scene or a relationship diagram between the perpetrator and the victim is written on a whiteboard, and it's exactly that image.This is because I believe that because my works are conceptual, they cannot be understood unless I explain them. My works are exactly the traces left at the crime scene itself.

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ーー It's important to enjoy the colors and shapes of the work itself, but understanding Vivian's intentions definitely changes the way you see it.

I believe that art is only art when the work acts as a medium to bring out the creativity within each viewer. Making and showing something beautiful or interesting is exactly half of it. The other half is formed by the viewers, the people who live there, and the people who are connected to them. The same is true for urban culture and town revitalization.

A famous festival in Aomori is the Nebuta festival. There are various theories about its origin, but one aspect is that it is a festival to worship Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, who, as Shogun, traveled to the current Aomori castle to conquer the Emishi. The festival, which seems to be a source of comfort for the local people of Aomori, can also be seen as a festival to heroize the centralized invaders (seen from the Tohoku region).

There are things in architecture and culture that cannot be measured by tradition alone. It is important to know the roots and what exists in this way.