Tomio Koyama Gallery Tokyo - Kyoto | TKG Editions　Ginza - Kyoto

——— Could you give us an introduction of this show? You named this show after the painting called "Her Affect On Branches."

Caivano This body of works is the continuation of the narrative "after the woods", so the princess are the one of the main characters. This show has a lot to do with the affects that she has on all the elements of the nature and to the landscape. So she has a sort of power that magician has in a way that she can make things apart, she can make things light and let others have power. Her affects have more to do with psychological influence. *1

In this particular drawing, she is trying to put the branches back to the place and there is a tree next to it, which is completely codified. Like "before and after"- what might happen after she arranges the tree- that becomes magical. The whole story is based on what happens when man and woman get lost in this universe, what happens to them and the environment. They are changed but also they changed the landscape. This show has lot to do with trying to understand how information and different elements have the really physical effect on the people and the landscape. The idea takes something meta-physical or metaphor. Meta-physical is in the sense that the concept is abstract. Metaphor is the sense that these stories are the representations of what we might actually see in the real world.*2

Like another drawing this one here, a lot of elements here is supposed to look like the broken icebergs. There are a lot of things that might be fallen apart in the world. We know certain amount of information, but there are so much that we do not know in this word. In the story the princess and woman later transformed into a space ship. It is two people, like you and me, shows up and becomes knight and trees and the woman becomes princess and space ship.

——— You are making your own narrative, and are also very interested in the structure of it.

Caivano Absolutely. Also, it is very important to be able to resonate with other narratives. Other stories from the history, folktales, science…. It is kind of like a collage, traditional historic collage of all those different elements also the current collage. We cannot have folktale mythology but by looking at the pictures, we can tell that the contemporary cultures are connected, and in the end, looking at these images, you will essentially find the mythology and how those things are connected in the end.
I am very interested how these images told in school, history and books are connected and resonated. For instance, some culture has similar symbols but different meanings. I am interested in what kinds of meanings these objects can help bring to the culture and how these objects establish the culture. You make a story collecting these objects and the story becomes something real to us in the end. But in fact they are abstract, very abstract. I like that very much.
Actually recently I have been reading a lot of Shinto. Shinto is actually very similar to the story that is behind my works. A lot of the elements in the nature have power and they carry meanings and energy that we may not necessarily see. And you have to find out that. Different cultures have that differently. American Indians have similar relation ship to the nature and worshiping them. Now we have lost these senses to the nature and everything became more about the money and possession. But I like that, I think that is important, so.
I let you ask me another question otherwise I will not stop talking!

——— When I see pieces like this and this, I feel as if you see all the structure of the whole world, which I can not see. You can see the typology of the real world and reflect it on your drawing.*3 *4

Caivano Both of these drawings came, well a lot of the works from the shows have to do with the idea that something physical affects us. A lot of the things that we experience physically and emotionally are completely abstract by the time we receive them so if you read news on the internet, on line the actual event did not happen. We do not know how it smells like. We emotionally think that these events happened, but physically we do not know if it actually happened. So these two drawings came from actually the frustration of looking at stars or something really small. Like rocks, I can hold but stars, I can only look at them. I can see it, I can read about it and I can learn all the different elements but I would not be able to see them. This is very abstract in this sense. It is like computers, nano technology or the way computer chips are designed. We are never　able to inhabit in that but they seem very real and affects our life very much. So I was thinking how I can　make drawings that have micro and macro aspects: that actually the spider walking on it something really physical but also very abstract. Spiders are definitely so. *3

You know, when you see　this drawing I really wanted to play off the metaphor of fabric space and also how to build kind of abstract texture. When you see this piece very close, you feel like something very familiar and when you see all the squares, and the ideas is that each corner of these squares connects, as the squares become more regular that, this drawing is based on the process a lot, so as the squares stretch and move, you kind of go with it, so the actual perfect structure of the square is completely disoriented and that would represent.*4

The way this drawing is made is that I used the razor shaving and I finished it and copied it. So this is a still life. It meant to look kind of like an explosion, or some kind of map or …Different process.

——— Each element is connected to each other.

Caivano To me, the most interesting thing is how tradition, maybe culturally. Most of the contemporary arts are so splendid from most of the tradition of the original art. They break off from and break off again and the end hundreds of different elements that are part of the similar like Renaissance or edo period a lot of the meaning behind that are not present, immediate any more. I can go to Italy and see Michalngero and say 'It is part of my tradition' but at the same time I did not have to be part of the tradition to appreciate it. I feel like a lot of artists can choose that tradition, like I can choose bit of this tradition and that tradition, in a way.
So the relation ship to the tradition is not cultural anymore, It is more chosen like DJ.
I think a lot of the arts is structured like that.

——— You are writing all the story for these drawings?

Caivano Yes, but like my personally. I started to write my text maybe 8 years ago, not to be read. It is like a rough draft. Each shows and works helps to build my narrative. The narrative is more cohesive and in the end at some point, I will be ale to release all the works with one narrative putting all the works together.

——— When did started work on this style? Detailed drawings?

Caivano I do sometimes paintings, the drawings came out of necessity. The studio I was working was very small so I used my sketch book, and the more the studio expands, the more materials I stared to use.
I started sculptures and paintings, but majority of the works has been drawings.
In terms of the techniques and styles I have been using have been appropriated by other artists' styles on purpose. Maybe this piece looks like Flemish paintings and this medieval work. I like that. I am trying to marry, bring together all the different interesting elements. I like this saying by Willem de Kooning that "the style was the lazy-ness of dealing with own neurosis "I really like that. I do not really know what style means. I think it is important to know that sub-consciously subliminally understand there are influences from the past history of the art. I am not being ironical to the art history but I think we still have the dialogs to the past. The abstract works, and impressionism works has familiar points when you put these next to each other but they all have each styles.

——— I feel you like all kinds of stories, history and science. Some people might like these pieces especially,more narrative and detailed works, but some might like these scientific ones. You can work with various motifs.*5 *6

Caivano Yes, for example, if you look at this drawing in this scale, it is not that different from this drawing in this scale. But the whole bodies of the pieces are totally different to each other. The idea is that the scale has lot to do with the time it self. The scale of the tree is a lot larger than ours. But if you look at the texture of the skin and expand it to this scale, it might be similar to the tree's scale. So depending on how big or how small it can be, you will see the different things.