Taiyo Kimura Interview

Trevor Schoonmaker: In the 1980s both Japan and the United States experienced periods of rapid growth and excessive consumption that led to the eventual crashes of our respective economies. To what extent would you say your work is a product of our generation (both of us born in 1970), and to what extent would you say it is typically Japanese?

Taiyo Kimura: I wasn’t in the US in the 1980’s, but I do share the spirit of the American music scene of that era, especially the garage band “Pussy Galore” from New York. I don’t intentionally try to show any local taste or “Japaneseness” in my artwork. But I am Japanese, of course.

I would say that the basic concepts of my work come from my experience in Tokyo at the end of the 1980’s. Tokyo was at the peak of its bubble economy and the city was full of “energetic-nothingness” all the time. People were rich, so the cities and states made a lot of money on taxes. But to keep that money the government had to spend it, so there were construction sites all over the streets for new businesses and shops that did not really exist. The cheerful mood enabled money to keep collecting while the spending made no sense at all. People were manic, as if they were bewitched by madness. But the era was also self-obsessed and brutal. I have been trying to figure out what this madness was that has given me so many ideas for my work for so long.

TS: Your work, no matter what the medium (drawing, sculpture, installation, video, performance, etc.), has a terrific sense of humor about it. It is often irreverent or discomforting; like what we refer to in English as ‘black humor’, but its edge is softened with a charm and sweetness that you bring to what otherwise might be seen as repulsive. In this way it seems like your intent is not to shock, but rather to amuse and provoke thought. Would you say that is accurate?

TK: I think so. My aim is to give a certain psychological influence to the viewer. If my artwork is only extremely heavy or grotesque like a splatter film or heavy metal, the viewer would only recognize it as completely another world. And if it is only soft or sweet, it would be just consumption material. To reach a viewer’s psychology, it should be neither too heavy nor too soft. When both ways are mixed in one, it makes the viewer confused and can reach their psychology.

Humor is one element of my art, and that humor can help make the heavy and soft go together. Even as I use humor in my art, to me humor is still a deep mystery. No animals laugh except humans. I wonder why only human beings laugh?

As you mentioned, my art has soft charm and sweetness to it. It also comes from me playing like a child in the way that I make my art. Through play you can learn anything easily…not only for human beings, but also in a more basic way for animals. For instance, kittens also play together like children do in school sports. They learn how to fight and hunt through it. Through playing I can handle any heavy topic.

TS: Since humor is so prevalent in your work, do you have any favorite writers, comic artists or comedians who might have influenced you?

TK: I was influenced by the manga artist Sensha Yoshida more than any fine artist. He is a cultural phenomenon in Japan. Comic critics often say that there are no humor comics after Sensha Yoshida. His comics are very surrealistic and can make the audience laugh and feel anxious at same time. His ideas for comics are always so simple and clear. Through his comics I learned simple, concrete ways to reach the viewer’s psychology. It’s like a kind of puzzle, similar to the Japanese poem, Haiku.

TS: In what ways have the exorbitantly high cost of living and lack of space in the Tokyo area affected your work? How easy or difficult is it to show your work in Japan?

TK: As you mentioned, the cost is too expensive. In the 1990’s there were fewer art galleries and it was common for artists to have to rent a space to exhibit their work. I could never afford storage, so I used to throw away my work after exhibitions. It has been very painful for me. Maybe in the future Japanese contemporary art will develop into something more suitable for smaller spaces, similar to how electronic products like the Walkman or video camera have become smaller and smaller.

Japanese galleries are also quite small. I used to show my work at such spaces and preferred it. There can’t be many visitors in a small space so it’s easy to let them confront and concentrate on my work. I used to see how they would react and hear their thoughts. For me it’s like a laboratory of psychology.

We Japanese must live so small. There are always so many people, sometimes to an extreme like during “rush hour” on a train. People must be 200% packed into the train-car for a few hours each day. Such a bizarre situation reminds me of the holocaust somehow. In this environment in Tokyo I feel I am no longer an individual, rather just one cell of Tokyo’s giant body. I have made my work as if I struggle to push the pressure of Tokyo away.

TS: I know that you are very knowledgeable of music as we have talked about artists ranging from Fela Kuti to Elliot Smith. Has your interest in music filtered into your work? And out of curiosity, what music are you listening to these days?

TK: I actually can’t make my art without listening to music. I would say that I’m typical of the “Walkman generation”. I always listen to music by earphones when I concentrate internally and see and interpret reality through the inner side. Since the earphones can be so close to the brain, I believe there must be a certain effect. I saw on TV that some US soldiers in Iraq listen to their Walkman when they go to the battlefield. Somehow I find I’m not so different from them.

I recently have been listening to 1980’s Prince, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Can (up until Future Days), 1980’s Daniel Johnston, Hope of The States, Meredith Monk, Boredoms, Konono No.1, Black Dice, Nine Inch Nails, etc.

TS: Your diverse taste in music seems to demonstrate a similar affinity for the overlooked, avant-garde and margins of society that I see in your art work. Speaking of Daniel Johnston, have you seen any of his art work? His drawings were included in the Whitney Biennial this year. They are whimsical and understated, not unlike your work.

TK: I know his drawings from his CD covers and love them. It’s so nice that his drawings are also recognized in the contemporary art world. What I like about his music and art is that he has developed his own language. The music of Daniel Johnston gives me courage.

Trevor Schoonmaker is Curator of Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, USA. Hehas organized numerous exhibitions including The Magic City (2000), Propeller (2005), The Beautiful Game: Contemporary Art and Futbol(2006), Street Level: Mark Bradford, William Cordova & Robin Rhode(2007), and the international traveling exhibitions Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (2003-2005) and DTroit(2003-2004). He is the editor of Fela: From West Africa to WestBroadway (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). Schoonmaker is currently organizing the traveling retrospective exhibition Barkley L.Hendricks: Birth of the Cool, at the Nasher Museum of Art (February2008).