Naoki Koide

Focus on the people around me

This is your third solo exhibition at the Tomio Koyama Gallery. I’d like to ask you about your works starting with the earliest. There was the Project Room (in the basement of Tomio Koyama Gallery, Shinkawa), the Undead Family at Art Tower Mito, the A Couple in the Bathroom solo show, Marriage at Kiyosumi Shirakawa, and now this show, In These Days.

All together four.

I would like to ask you about the motifs in your sculptures, some have remained the same and others have changed.

What has remained constant is my use of motifs based on people around me who I know or whose relationship to me is clear. If I can’t project these people into my works then I can’t know if what I am doing is right or not. In that sense, rather than using something foreign, I stick to things I know or have seen, people I’ve talked to. The people around me are always just easier to make.

It pops up a lot in your work.

Basically, I work with animals I’ve seen or can imagine. Or else weak animals that humans hang up or sacrifice or eat, or those we keep as pets. In other words, creatures around us. It’s important for me to know what the thing is. I’m not really interested in making animals that I’ve only seen in photographs. The hippopotamus and whale are exceptions, though, because I’d never seen either of them in the flesh. Somebody said, “Can’t you make those animals?” and I said, “Sure I can,” and I did, but I didn’t feel right about showing them, so in the end, I added figures on top and made them into my own work.

The idea for the whale and hippo came from a visitor to the gallery, right?

That’s right. I thought, what do you mean I can’t make them! I can too make them! [laughs]

I see. That was at the A Couple in the Bathroom show, right? You weren’t married yet, were you?

I wasn’t married yet. And since the relationship between the two is, they are a “couple.” The situation at the time is always important.

You appear in each of your exhibitions.

The first time I made a family piece, undead family, dealing my mother’s death was a big thing for me. I started feeling that I had to make a family. Works up to that point, for example, Batto shonen (Bat Boy), had no connection to my family. Then, suddenly, the focus shifted to the people around me. Since then, I have limited myself to working with those around me, those I know.

Okay, now I’d like to ask you about the individual works. Let’s start with the large work picnic with undead. The work is in the shape of a cloud, right?

Yes. My initial idea for the series of three large sculptures was to make a procession― the leader is pilot, followed by the couple in new home, with picnic with undead as the big finale. I didn’t originally plan to make picnic with undead so large, only that I wanted the figures on the main structure to be looking down at us. In architecture in China and Japan, you have all these human figures and animals, guardian deities and mountain wizards, placed on the roof. I didn’t intend for the structure to be open, either, but then I thought it would be fun if people could go inside, so the whole thing got a lot bigger. There were also supposed to be more arms coming out of it.

So it became a piece of architecture?

That’s right. And after getting rid of everything I didn’t need, I settled on this form.

And who do these figures on top represent?

This couple in the front is me and my wife, here’s my mother, my mother’s mother who died at the beginning of last year, and my grandfather. My mother, grandmother, and grandfather are all people who’ve died since I was born.

It looks like something you’d find in a park playground.

Yes, it does. And I wanted to make drawings on the inside. One of the things I wanted to do for this exhibition was to make a lot of drawings. Up to now, once I had painted the figure’s face and body, piece would be finished, but this time I was more interested in painting things on the surface of the figure itself.

Before, you mentioned that making your objects was more like drawing than sculpting. And here the surfaces of the works show a lot of drawing. Did you arrive at this way of working through trial and error?

Before, when making figures, I always felt this compulsion to make each one just right. The first work here that I painted was picnic with undead and I thought, the thing looks like a cloud. So, how am I going to come up with the right finish? Then I thought, damn it! I’m not going to worry about rendering it in different colors. I am just going to draw whatever I want on it. That’s when things got fun. I used a different drawing style on the inside than on the outside. While working on the outside, I still had the feeling that I had to make everything perfect. Once I had the outside pretty much done, I started working on the inside and thought, what the hell, I’ll draw what I want to draw.

Maybe you’ve made it better by making it dirtier. Regarding the texture, in most cases FRP (fiber-reinforced polyester resin) sculptures have smooth, shiny surfaces, but yours are more matte.

Before I put clear lacquer on them, they are quite rough and dull- finished.

What is the work process like?

I use a spray gun, not a brush, and I aim for rough, pebbly surfaces like those on outdoor attractions at Disneyland. I don’t spray with a plan beforehand, I just spray. If it doesn’t work, I wipe it off. It’s similar to when I draw.

Did the form change as you went along?

Yes, it did. With a carved-wood piece you can also strip off all the paint if you want. You can’t really add, but you can carve and paint, carve and paint. I didn’t feel too much stress while woodcarving.

And this is a sickle?

It’s a sickle. I’m sure professional woodcarvers wouldn’t like the way I made it, though. I cut it out of a piece of plywood and banged it onto the figure with a bunch of nails. I didn’t first plan to make this form. I decided on it after I got a bunch of wood from Keisuke Yamamoto, a wood sculptor, who didn’t need it and told me I to use it for firewood.

Do the titles The guard and pilot have any significance?

They are characters in a story that developed while making the drawings. Of the works in this show, the couple in new home are the brightest, but gradually the dark side makes an appearance. Some of the figures in picnic with undead are a little dark, but pilot is the darkest, baddest character here. The guard appeared as a character while I was finishing up that drawing [points to drawing on wall] and then I decided to make him in wood.

So, first you made the FRP works, then the drawings, then the woodcarving.