InterviewFeatured Artist

Yuko Kawazoe
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The world of "between reality and fantasy" painted with rock paints
Fascinated by the texture of rock paint, I entered the world of Japan painting.
 
Unusual motifs such as ancient fish and deep-sea fish. How did Yuko Kawazoe's work, which has a mysterious charm that mixes a dangerous tranquility with a sense of reality that seems to start moving when you look at it intently, came about? 
 
― How did you start Japan painting? 
"I've loved drawing since I was little, but I didn't really learn to draw until I took the entrance exam for a high school with an art department. I decided to major at the end of my first year of high school, but I originally wanted to do printmaking. When I was in junior high school, I saw Yozo Hamaguchi's work and thought it was really good. But I didn't major in printmaking. At that time, I happened to be in the library and saw the "road" of Higashiyama Kaii and thought, "There is such a thing." This is a Japan painting. I hadn't seen much of Japan paintings before. I was attracted to the light atmosphere like pastel tones, and I chose Japan paintings without knowing what Japan paintings were. 」  
 
― Fascinated by rock paint 
"At first, I was only allowed to use water-dried paint in class, but when I learned about the existence of rock paint in my third year of high school, I thought, 'I want to use it.' It has a unique feel that is like a coral fossil, like a pumice, and is plump, not found in ordinary tube paints. I was very attracted to the unique texture of rock paint. I still want to draw works that make use of that sense of material. It's a pity that rock paint is not well known to the general public. I feel that Japan painting is a bit of a threshold. I didn't know much about it myself. But I want more people to know that there are such atmospheric and attractive art materials. 」
Encounters with ancient fish and an "extraordinary" worldview
― You choose ancient fish and deep-sea fish as motifs, but why ancient fish?

 
"I first saw ancient fish in an aquarium when I was in high school, and I became aware of them as motifs after entering university. I went to the aquarium to sketch, looked for an empty place so as not to disturb people, and found Pilark's tank. It was so empty that I could sit all day (laughs). I sketched while thinking, "There is a strange creature." A university professor who saw the sketch said, "This is Kun." "Kun" is a story about a sentence in the Chinese "Zhuangzi" called "Xiaoyaoyu", and there is a big fish called Kun in the northern sea, and Kun eventually becomes a bird called Peng and flies away. Pilarc also rises to the surface to breathe, so the story fell into my mind and I started drawing Pilark from there. No matter how many times you draw it, you never get tired of it. I can see new goodness in Pilaruk, and there are some things that I am still not convinced of, so I continue to draw."  
 
― The colors are also unique and feel unrealistic. 
"I'm conscious of that. I probably don't use the colors as they look. I'm not drawing with the aim of drawing, but it's not just what I see, but my own consciousness. For example, when I was looking at the cherry blossoms to sketch, of course, I was hallucinating, but I felt like a lungfish came out sloping, so I drew it together. Maybe it's an over-the-top imagination. Maybe that's why it looks a little unrealistic. I like the word "picture sky". "Impossible". I can process it now, so I can take photos freely, but I think there are things that can only be expressed through paintings."

Draw in a natural way like water or air
― What kind of things do you want to express?

 
"It may be more like an impulse than a painting with a clear purpose. I don't think it's artificial, but it feels like I'm letting my inner self flow. The motif of an ancient fish was not a clear intention to draw this from the beginning, but it flowed somehow and I felt like I was stuck in it. I majored in Japan painting and was attracted to rock paint, not because I was willing to do it myself, but because I arrived naturally by fate. It's not what I was aiming for, it's natural."  
 
― What do you want to work on in the future? 
"From now on, I would like to draw motifs other than fish. I think that drawing the shoebill will be a turning point for that. I can't go to sketch because of the corona disaster... People who have seen past exhibitions have told me that it is a painting with a worldview that is like a gap between the ordinary and the extraordinary, and I would like to stick to it. I think the gap between reality and fantasy that cannot be expressed in photography is the real pleasure of painting. And he is gently snuggling up to someone, not making any particular claims, but he is there. I would be very happy if I put a picture like that. There may be some parts of Japan painting that are difficult to grasp, but I hope that people will be interested in what Japan painting is like after seeing that there are people who are doing strange things. 」  
 
― What is art to Yuko Kawazoe? 
"For me, painting is 'water and air'. That's why I'm not that conscious of it, but if I don't have it, I'll die. It's not something artificial that you want to express something, it's something more natural."