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Art/Photography

Interview with Yu Araki |Thinking about “original” with imagination born from misalignment

荒木 悠インタビュー |ズレから生まれる想像力で「オリジナル」を考える

"Original and reproduction (copy)". This theme is wide-ranging and deep, from culture and lifestyle to issues surrounding originality of expression and plagiarism. For Yu Araki, an artist who spent his childhood in the United States and is now based in Japan but works around the world, ``what is real'' and ``what is not'' seem to have continued to be connected to his own identity. The title of his latest solo exhibition, which is his largest ever, is ``Reproduction Temple.'' So I visited the artist himself at the Yokohama Museum of Art, the venue for the event, and spoke to him.

Interview&Text: Shinichi Uchida Photo (Portrait): Masamasa Nishino

Visit two or three Parthenons

——The work of the same name that greets people at your latest solo exhibition, “Replica Temple,” is a strange loop of footage of the Parthenon, a famous world heritage site, and Araki himself jogging endlessly around it.

“Reproduction Temple” 2016, exhibition view Photo: Shintaro Yamanaka
“Reproduction Temple” 2016, exhibition view Photo: Shintaro Yamanaka

Araki : Similar images are played on the front and back walls of the exhibition room, but one is a full-size replica of a building in Nashville, America, where I grew up. It was built in 1897 for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition (originally scheduled to be held in 1896, but due to presidential elections and construction schedules, it was postponed to the following year). It's a relic from the days when Nashville was planned to be the "Athens of the South." Although I had been familiar with it since I was a child, I grew up not knowing that it was a replica, so when I later learned about the real thing in history class, I had mixed feelings. Perhaps not only for the Parthenon itself, but also for myself, who had been exposed to it without knowing the original.

——Mr. Araki's debut exhibition was in the underground space of this replica Parthenon, where he exhibited a self-portrait at an event where students' art works were collected when he was a high school student.

Araki : Yes. The underground space of the replica Parthenon and Art Gallery 1 of the Yokohama Museum of Art, which will be the venue for this solo exhibition, look like twins, and this was also the source of the idea for this ``Replica Temple'' exhibition.

--So you decided to go see the "real thing"? Then, what is reflected on the other side of the wall is the Parthenon, the original Greek building?

Araki : With that intention in mind, I actually planned to go to Athens and somehow take some photos, but things went awry and I ended up not getting permission to shoot. This was three months before the exhibition. When I was at a loss, I heard that there was a replica of the Parthenon in Edinburgh, Scotland, so I looked it up and it was indeed there. What's more, it was built over 70 years before Nashville, so it's the original replica (lol). So I hurriedly flew to the ``Athens of the North'', where I photographed the Scottish National Monument projected on the other side of the wall.

--It's interesting that although the structure is like a journey in search of the "original," both are actually copies.

Araki : In the end, the copies were connected and I continued to run around in a world where the original was absent. I think that unexpected circumstances made the work stronger than originally planned.

As a returnee, I worry about my sense of authenticity.

——This entire solo exhibition has the perspective of ``What is an original and what is a reproduction?'' I would like to ask you about this. I wonder if Mr. Araki's upbringing has something to do with it? I feel that way. So, first of all, may I ask you to tell me your story?

Araki : Due to my parents' work, I lived in Cleveland for about a year from the time I was 3 years old, then moved to Nashville and returned to Japan when I was 6 years old. However, when I was in the second year of junior high school, my family moved to the United States again, and from there we lived in Nashville again. I lived in the United States until I graduated from university, and then returned to Japan where I am now.

——What was your student life like over there? There seems to be a big difference in language and culture.
Araki : My high school was a public school, and it was in a pretty rough place. There was a student who brought a handgun to a basketball game, and metal detectors were installed in the gym the following week (bitter smile). Also, this isn't particularly related, but Harmony Korine, the film's director, is quite a senior to me.

Yu Araki

--I see……. What kind of high school student were you, Araki?

Araki : I was desperately trying to fit in with the culture over there. I was trying to fit into a pattern myself, which was foolish in retrospect, but I was observing my classmates as much as I was aiming to be a perfect copy. Although I am not a Christian, I still attend church... although this was partly due to my relationship with the family who took care of my parents when they returned to Japan.

--So you didn't return to Japan with your parents?

Araki : Yes. Looking back, I feel that my attachment to Japan as my "home" was weak. I chose to remain in the United States for several reasons, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks that occurred in 2001 and my visa status, which made it difficult to re-enter the United States once I left the country. When I graduated from university in 2007, I decided to return to Japan.

——Does that experience seem to have any influence on your later creations?

Araki : Their voice, behavior, and even thoughts change depending on the language they use, so I definitely feel like there is a kind of dual personality characteristic of returnee children. Perhaps due to this influence, my works always seem to have a perspective that moves back and forth between the two. This feeling of limbo gradually makes me start to think that I am a fake, and then I start to wonder what the real thing is...

--It certainly exists, but do you have a sense of where its roots are? This seems to be connected to the theme of this solo exhibition.

Araki : Maybe so. For example, there is an old work called ``Deep Search,'' in which a person uses a gastrocamera to find a small doll that he swallowed, but originally he wanted to use the camera to see things inside his body that he had never seen before. was first. This doll is made in a foreign country, so it looks like a white male. Lately, I've been thinking to myself, ``Maybe that was an unconscious expression of the feeling that the American thing inside me was being stripped away after I returned home.'' It's already been seven years since I made it, but I feel like I've finally understood the meaning of the work.

《Deep Search》2009

The charm of “erroneous translation” and “misalignment” of images

——From the perspective of “what is real/what is not”, I feel like many people have a similar feeling at some point. Where/what do I belong to? Is this who I really am? Is this where I really belong? etc.

Araki : In my case, the words English and Japanese were important to me, so I think that led to my interest in mistranslations and mistranslations. On a more related note, I have also become interested in connecting things that are not directly related. For example, my graduation project at the university over there was to collect countless images of horses from the Internet and continuously play them back to create an animation of running horses (971 HORSES + 4ZEBRAS, 2007). The motif is a series of photographs of galloping horses taken by British photographer Eadweard Muybridge at the end of the 19th century.

《971 HORSES + 4 ZEBRAS》2007

——How did you choose a style based on visual expression?

Araki : At first, I majored in sculpture at university. I think I wanted to make something after all. However, I realized that I wasn't really good at it at all, and in the end, I didn't make any sculptures while I was in school. But at that university, there was a place where anything that dealt with time and space would be recognized as sculpture in a broader sense. Even when I brought bread for a review, they saw it as ``grilled food'' (lol). Although I couldn't make them, I thought I could take pictures, so I started using a camera.

——What is the appeal of video for you, Araki?

Araki : It's still fascinating to be able to edit things that were originally shot at different times and locations to make them appear connected. I feel that the process of carefully observing the materials I've photographed and thinking about how to connect them is somewhat similar to the process of translation, which connects foreign languages. However, when it comes to production, I am more attracted to the leap in meaning that results from a ``mistranslation'' than the accuracy required in the actual translation. For example, I think that plastic models are a medium that can easily lead to situations where you can end up with an impossible shape if you proceed without reading the instructions and just think, ``I think this and that will stick together''.

In the folding stories

——I have asked a lot of questions, but I would like to return to the topic of your solo exhibition. Speaking of ``connecting seemingly unrelated things,'' in ``Replicated Temple,'' Mr. Araki's bright jersey appearance, which seemed a mismatch with the grandeur of the ancient ruins, was impressive.

Araki : That's Adidas Originals clothing. I chose the name because the famous three-leaf logo is based on the laurel wreath given to the winner in ancient sports. By the way, the relationship between Germany and Greece, the birthplace of the brand, has deep roots in terms of diplomacy, going back to neoclassicism and going back to the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. Even if we were granted permission to film at the Parthenon, the local Greek authorities told us that the Cultural Affairs Agency might point out the political nature of the costumes.

《Searching the Original》2016, HD video
《Searching the Original》2016, HD video

——One of the characteristics of this solo exhibition is that such associative mechanisms can be seen throughout. I felt that the first full-length film, ``Searching the Original,'' which can be called a highlight, was especially highly packed. As the title suggests, what is original? With this theme, the story progresses with a mysterious setting of a monologue (?) about a statue of the ancient god Dionysus found in the Parthenon.

Araki : That video is the result of all the footage I shot over a period of about a year, lined up on a single timeline, and carved out little by little like carving stone. I didn't have any scenarios or storyboards, and I was most concerned about how to edit the fragments I had collected from filming wherever I went. In the process, I decided that this needed a story and drew from Thomas Mann's novel Disillusionment (1896) in an adaptation. Although I imitate cinematic grammar in my own way, I look at and think about the material I shot without making any decisions, so there are scenes that are functional and scenes that are not. Because of the way it was created, I'm not sure if it can even be called a scene anymore.

--I'm also curious as to why you were called ``disillusioned.'' The novel itself tells the story of a man who acquires knowledge about life through books, but as he experiences things in real life, he becomes disappointed, thinking, ``This is all there is to it.''

Araki : There is a passage in the novel where he becomes disillusioned after seeing a famous work of art, and as I read it, I felt a lot of sympathy. Because that's what I thought when my long-cherished wish came true and I arrived at the original Parthenon. Of course, I know that it is a historically important ruin, but somehow I expected it to be something more. Best of all, thanks to copying technology, the photographs and images we had already seen - including the Parthenon in Nashville - were simply the same. Experiencing such a sense of déjà vu, I realized that the passion that went into building that full-size replica of Nashville was amazing, and I was impressed by the completeness of the replica.

Yu Araki

--The story behind it is also interesting when thinking about originals and reproductions. ``Searching the Original'' also has a structure in which several stories progress simultaneously. One is footage that follows contemporary American high school students in the week leading up to graduation, and at first glance they seem to have no connection at all...

Araki : That high school student's name is Lucas, and he's the youngest member of the family I mentioned earlier when I was in America, and he's my younger brother. I went to Nashville last May to attend his high school graduation ceremony. He didn't even notice when he pointed the camera lens at him, so I captured his daily life up until graduation because he was so natural. When I looked back at the video of him all grown up and lying on the couch eating snacks, I noticed that his pose and appearance were exactly like the statue of Dionysus in the Parthenon. At that moment, ancient and modern times suddenly connected in my mind, and I could see the image of the sculpture as if it were alive and moving. Another story is going on at the same time that I'm going to search for the quarry where the marble that became the material for the Parthenon was obtained. When we actually go there, we find a cave, which is a metaphor for Plato's cave (people who live in caves think that the ``shadow'' of ``substance'' is the substance itself. I incorporated elements into the video that would create such associations, such as the idea that everything that exists is just the ``shadow'' of an idea.

――Was the work ``Fig.'' shown on the slide in front of the same work the origin of this idea? Family photos of Lucas and his siblings are projected alternately, reminding us of the similarities between ancient sculptures and their figures.

Araki : Yes. As for ``Fig.'', it is a truly private photograph, so I had a lot of trouble with the ethics of creating it. But there was no point in worrying about it, so I took the plunge and talked to her directly, and she said, ``Okay.'' I understood that this was proof that I was accepted as a member of the family. At the same time, that album includes the time I didn't spend with them. I chose the title ``Fig.'' because I wanted to take a dry look at the very strange position I find myself in, being half family member and half stranger. From the perspective that both family photographs and ancient sculptures were created to leave evidence of their existence, these images seem to me to be equivalent.

The meaning of "original" as seen through a chain of images

--Also, the young man who travels with you to the mine is called ``Lafcadio,'' which reminds me of Yakumo Koizumi (Lafcadio Hearn) from Greece. There are also countless hooks scattered throughout, such as a modern woman making a life-sized sculpture of a hand to match the statue of Dionysus with a missing arm. Expanding the world by connecting seemingly unrelated facts and fiction - I suddenly thought of the fascinating previous artists who adopted this method, but what kind of expression was Mr. Araki trying to achieve with this work? Isn't it?

Araki : In my case, I think I'm interested in the degree of discrepancy when layering things that may be unrelated. I happened to be interested in the woman who makes the hand sculptures, and I took a photo of her, but her real name is Penelope, which is the same name as a goddess from Greek mythology. I would be happy if you could expand your imagination due to the gaps in this chain of images. Even in movies, I like directors who use various quotations from other masterpieces and expressions other than movies. Conversely, this may mean that I doubt that words can convey something fixed.

――I would like the readers to actually see how this video work ends, but Jean Cocteau's paradoxical words about originality that are played at the beginning are a message. I accepted it.

Araki : I feel like the modern mythical idea that the ``original'' is great still has strong roots, and on the other hand, it's also true that the concept of ``original'' only comes into being when a copy appears. However, for example, the Parthenon in Nashville can be said to have been an original experience for me as a child, and there was a political reason for it to be quoted in that local context in that way. . However, in my mind, I feel like I have found the answer, but I also feel that I have not, and I am still going back and forth.

"Casting Studies" 2016, 5 HD videos
"Casting Studies" 2016, 5 HD videos

——The five small video works ``Casting Studies'' shown at the end of the exhibition felt like Mr. Araki's left-handed letters, with a sense of this lingering and continuing thought.

Araki : Each of them captures the stage before reaching the realm of creation and expression, such as making bread to eat, fixing broken machinery, preparing the groundwork for painting, and practicing the piano. It's something. When I was photographing the movements of my hands during the process of creating a model to be cast, I felt that this was more sublime than the finished sculpture itself. I don't know if I can call it aura, but I feel like there's authenticity in seeing someone working on something, so I decided to have them take a look.

——When I listened to you today, I thought that while some of Araki's creations are rooted in his somewhat unique background as a returnee, he also has a wide variety of works when viewed from his interest in the idea of authenticity/fake. I wonder if people can get into it from their own perspective.

Araki : I don't think returnee children are that rare, but instead of trying to force themselves to fit in with the environment they're in, or trying to fit into a mold to fit in with those around them, they rather overflow from the mold. I think that if society focused on the possibilities, life would become a little easier.

Yu Araki

——Finally, could you give a message to the people visiting the exhibition?

Araki : I would be happy if you could find a ``story'' in the differences between the images from your own perspective.

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