ART LIVES TORIDE Where Art Is Born

I work as a part-time technical instructor at Tokyo University of the Arts, install works for exhibitions, and sometimes create fixtures on commission. If I had to call myself by a title, I would say I am an “artist”. I do a lot of different things in order to create my artworks.

In high school, I was constantly breaking down things and putting them back together. For example, I sewed up peels of oranges after eating them and made them into works of art, or used pencil shavings to remake the shape of the pencil again. I was living in Beijing at the time. It was right around the time of the Olympics, and I saw the city being completely transformed at every turn. Tearing down and rebuilding does not mean going back to the original state, but rather, creating something new. I think that process was important to me.

Lately, I have been making artworks to understand trivial events, realizations, and questions in my daily life. I wonder why things are the way they are, and what I can do with the objects, things, and motifs.

For example, recently, my heart has been beating funny, and sometimes it suddenly starts beating fast. At the same time, I realized that if my heart stops beating, it means that I will die. I thought I could do something by visualizing the heartbeat. This is the work I am working on now.

A ball thumps onto the glass to the rhythm of a person’s pulse. Underneath the glass is concrete with cracks to remind us that the glass we are tapping on will eventually break. I am curious to see how this work will break, and I want to know what will happen when it breaks. I also wonder what people will feel when they see it. I think I will be able to understand my own works more clearly by releasing this kind of work to the world.

The combination of materials is determined by my senses, but recently I have been feeling more comfortable combining natural and mechanical materials. I wonder where this comes from.

I have always loved animals very much. As much as that, I like mechanical things in my house a lot. I used to sleep in front of the washing machine. Now that I think about it, I think I felt safe because of its steady rhythm. I think the combination of natural things; created without intention, and mechanical things; created by human beings with great calculation, makes me feel comfortable. There are still some things that I don’t fully understand.

It is like a hobby for me to observe how cars and factory machines work. The mechanisms are all throughout so well to make them work. It broadens the scope of my thinking about my work to see how they can move and how they can express themselves in this way. I also like to observe animals and people very carefully. It is interesting to see how people all walk differently, and the fact that they all have a meaning in their own way.

Thinking is the hardest part of creating a work. But it is the most important. It’s hard, but the moment an idea comes to me after thinking about it, I am extremely happy. I feel excited. I think about how to give it shape, and I get excited. I work silently and again it makes me feel happy when it’s done. Well, in general, I enjoy it overall.

Someday, I would like to create a workspace that can be shared and used by all kinds of people. A place where artists and the general public can create something. Right now, there are university workshops and places that can be used by individuals, but I think that if there were a place where people from all walks of life could mingle, there would be more curiosity in creating things.

By the way, I love Toride. What I like about it is that I can make a lot of noise without worrying about my surroundings. When I got extremely busy recently, I changed my appointment and went to Toride instead. I went back to the empty classroom and shouted out loud. The sky is wide and the Tone River is also very pleasant.