Pioneer of Cubist Sculpture

Jacques Lipchitz
Yoshitomo Nara
Nobodys Fool

The Art of

YN: Yes. The reason is, the entire 1990s, the entire decade, I was
not even in Japan. I was absent. So its a mystery to me why Im
so often associated with a movement that is so specific to that
time and to that place. The other thing is, people often say Oh
his work is influenced by manga and by animation but this is really not true. Im much more influenced by picture books, childrens
books with pictures. So whenever I have an opportunity I talk
about that. In a picture book you have a single image that can
contain an entire narrative and I think this is a style of visual
story telling that I have really learned a lot from and have been
influenced by. If you think about manga and animation really
its actually a series of images, a series of squares put together that tell a story. It doesnt tell any story through one of its
single snapshot images. Of course I can read these things and
enjoy the story, but I dont get as much enjoyment out of a single
panel, a single image.

Yoshitomo Nara
to host a week-long Open Studio for the public to come in and
see his workspace. The artists studio informs his work to a great
extent, and it was an unprecedented opportunity to see his working process. Nara and I briefly connected over our mutual ability
to speak German. I made him a mix CD. With three different
installations and a host of programs, lectures and talks it was really difficult to find any time to have a chat, but the day after the
exhibition opened I had the opportunity to sit down for a few
minutes with Nara and an interpreter, and finally get that shot
at an interview with him.
Natalie Hegert: So have you been having a fun time in New
York since youve been here?
Yoshitomo Nara: Ive been very busy preparing for the exhibition so Ive basically spent all my time in New York inside this
building. But Ive had a really fun time working with the staff
here preparing this exhibition.
NH: Do you have any time off at all while youre here?

Yoshitomo Nara is an art superstar, cult idol, pop icon.
His images of big-headed little girls wielding knives and menacing
expressions are recognized and adored by a legion of fans around
the world. Yet this status as an art celebrity he accepts reluctantly,
preferring to be considered a student retaining a constant beginners spririt. Long associated with the Neo-Pop movement of
Japanese contemporary art spearheaded by Takashi Murakami and
his Superflat theory, Naras work has been effectively lumped in
with the otaku, manga and anime-loving fans in Japanese subculture.

The exhibition Nobodys Fool at the Asia Society Museum is his first, and some would say long overdue, major museum
show in New York and an attempt to rectify this oversimplification and misconstruction, emphasizing Naras influences stemming from music, not from comic books. In a way theyre pointing
out that Nara might still be a bit of a nerd, but hes a music nerd,
which is eminently different (and much cooler) than a comic book
nerd. The show also highlights the diversity in Naras work--hes
not simply a painter of little girls with weapons, but a sculptor,
ceramicist, photographer and installation artist. There are three
large-scale installations in the show, designed with his long-term
collaborator Hideki Toyoshima, one of them site-specific for the
Asia Society.

I first met Yoshitomo Nara when he was working with
his team at the Park Avenue Armory, which had sectioned off a
small portion of the drill hall to house a temporary artist studio.
Rather uncharacteristically for the reclusive artist, he had offered

YN: I might have some time, but then whatever free time I have
I end up doing interviews like this or other events, like the one
at Hunter College. Yesterday I actually paid a visit to Bellevue
Hospital over on 1st Avenue. Theyre creating a new childrens
wing there, a pediatric wing, and theyve asked me to design art to
go on the walls, so I was actually there to do a site survey. So its a
lot of things; Ive been pretty busy.

(So at that point I felt bad, taking up the time of an artist who is
trying to paint murals for sick kids with yet another interview, and
asking him about stuff hes been asked already several times just
this week. So I tried to geek out about music with him a bit. One
of the most enjoyable aspects of his work, for me at least, are the
hidden messages and song lyrics he hides in some of his drawings,
that are only recognized by other fans of that particular band. So
only some of us will look at the drawing Kill kill kill the P and
know what hes referencing.)
NH: This exhibit is really focused on your relationship with
musica really interesting point is the selection of your vast LP
collection. It was a little bit different than what I expected to see;
music like Holy Modal Rounders, Nils Lofgren, Geoff and Maria
Muldaur, when I thought it would maybe be more punk. So
what were the reasons behind why you chose those albums?
YN: As you said, theres a very strong image of me out there as
a punk music lover but before I discovered punk, it wasnt like
a blank canvas. I discovered punk music when I was seventeen so
before that, in middle school and high school, this is the music
that I loved. So its a lot of singer-songwriters as you can see. But

to be honest, a lot of the content of the lyrics and the music is

really beyond the actual grasp of a seventeen-year-old. If I had to
narrow it down, I would say that this kind of music is what I really
wanted to study and get further into the world of, even if I didnt
really understand the depth and the true meaning of the music.
In the last three or four years Ive actually gone back and was
reorganizing my collection of records and listened to this music
and was really surprised at how much more I really understood
and connected to it now. And so nowadays I do of course still
listen to punk music but Im also listening to this music from the
60s and 70s.
And heres the actual important part of the story: if you compare
Japan and America, or Japan and a European country, obviously
they have different cultures and religions, different music thats
part of peoples daily lives, but one thing that I think that might be
a little bit difficult for Americans to grasp is the fact that people
like me in Japan were listening to this music, and really love this
music even though English is not our native language. We may
have no English skills at all, but we really embrace this music.
Language is something Im sure you know that English-speaking
people in Western countries really take for granted; that they could
actually connect with [the lyrics] without that hurdle.
Of course if you think back to the 70s, information moved very
differently. There was no Internet obviously and even the release
date of albums in Japan could be delayed as much as six months.
There was so much less information then. So imagine that kind
of environment and having so little info and all you have is the
music itself and you have the album cover, twleve inches square.
I would just sit there, listen to the music, look at the art on the
cover and I think I really developed my imagination through that.

(At this moment he picked up my note pad with all my questions

scrawled on it and winced at the length. Pick a good one he
seemed to say, cause we dont have much time left. So here was
the heavy-hitter:)
NH: This exhibition has an objective to dispel some of the clichs
about your work in relation to Japanese contemporary and NeoPop art. Are you distancing yourself from Superflat?

As children, a lot of people start drawing doodles and pictures,

usually copying manga or comic books, but I never did that.
Even as a little kid I drew very academically, very artistically, and
was not influenced by that style. Maybe you drew Sailor Moon
as a kid, but I never did that. When I started to look back on my
childhood and really focusing on that time, I think that what I got
out of picture books I really carried with me through my life and
thats a very strong element. And so I think some people might
look at [my work] and project an idea about manga and its influence, but for me I work very hard to make sure that my art does
not produce a superficial image, that there is much more depth to
it, so thats something I would like people to see.
NH: Thats something you can definitely see in your paintings,
especially in the layers of paint. When I saw the film, Traveling
with Yoshitoma Nara, watching the montages of you painting, it
becomes very apparent how deep they are and when you approach
the paintings you can see those layers. Theres a lot of depth to it.
YN: Thank you very much.

(ArtSlant would like to thank Yoshitomo Nara, Tomio Koyama

Gallery and the Asia Society Museum, New York for their assistance in making this
interview
possible.)