Art Glossary Magazine 01 A issue by Masafumi Inaba

imon Taylor/ Interview

the world is a play ground SIMON

TAY L O R

Simon Taylor is a filmmaker and one of the founding members of the creative collective, Tomato. Straddling the line between art and design, his work, commercial and non-commercial, is all about the journey. For the first issue of Art-Glossary, Simon kindly shares his thoughts on the definitions of art, design and creativity.

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Contributor: Joana Filizola Photography: Kevin Wong

Simon Taylor

Art

[v, n, adj, adv] - the agent for change - an activity and a process, it defines action in some way

Synonyms: life Antonyms: death Quotation: “All film [art] is poison.” -Seijun Suzuki “Art is the itch I can’t scratch.”

Craft & Play Art is a poison, making our perception different.

apanese film director Suzuki Seijun said ‘All film is poison. Meaning that a film or, let us say art, will introduce an idea that is a challenge to the status quo. The purpose of it is to challenge cultural definitions and to fight against society. Its idea is to subvert and alter people’s perceptions. The definition of art based on that kind of thought is that it is an agent for change. If you go even further back, one of the first known human creations was a figurine of a woman. We realized is where we came from, that was essentially the most important thing that we had: woman. Therefore art, on a much more philosophical level, the poison, is what separates us from animals. However what we do with it depends on culture. It ultimately articulates our faith in whatever that might be: woman, God…

I hate to use the word art, but creativity is something I engage with everyday. It’s something I can't switch on and off.

y uncles were wood craftsmen and my father was a cameraman for television and film. When I was in my teens I spent a lot of time in the wood factory making furniture and cutting up wood. I loved doing that, and I still love making things. I am very interested in what something means. I imagine that is from my upbringing,

the way I was taught to look at things. I remember seeing pictures by Aubrey Beardsley when I was little¬-quite erotic black and white illustrations. I was amazed by how graphic they were. I didn’t know what graphic meant then, I guess I was probably thinking that it just wasn’t a cartoon.

Play, in terms of making things, is to go with an open mind and see what happens.

ne night I went to pick my kid up from school and he drew for four hours nonstop. It was exhausting! But this is really inspirational to me, and not because he is my kid. I love what kids do when they get a pencil and a piece of paper. Seeing their minds just trying to figure it out. The only limitation is their ability to control the pencil. It is completely open and to try and retain some of that is important.

When you go to university you can breathe a bit. It is like being in some kind of semi-independent state, a point where you develop relationships and ideas.

hat is sad about further education today is that this spirit is being diminished. It is now about targets and forward planning.

Recently, a piece of art was sent to me by a student from Central Saint Martins. It was a hand drawn typographic work that said: "I must consider my future". I thought it was great because it was quite cynical in the way it was drawn; it made me laugh and it communicated properly what the problem was. We have to get back to the idea, particularly in humanities, of research, development and understanding through osmosis — not of targeting some career advice. Also, understanding and collaborating with your contemporaries is massively important. Nobody is going to teach you everything; it is a combination of learning from people with experience and sharing with people with no experience. Learn from your peers. University is about giving yourself time to think and experiment. Because as soon you get into the commercial arena there is no opportunity for that. We created this opportunity when we made Tomato, but this situation is very unusual. If you go to work in the morning and your art director says something has to be done by the afternoon you have no time to play. So that period of time is really important to develop your own point of view.

The difference between a company and a collective is that for the latter there is no hierarchy, no boss. We have relationships that are borne out of making work together, or individually, and showing it to each other.

Seijun Suzuki Seijun Suzuki , born Seitaro Suzuki (Suzuki Seitar) on May 24, 1923, is a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are renowned by film enthusiasts worldwide for their jarring visual style, irreverent humour, nihilistic cool and entertainmentover-logic sensibility. He made 40 predominately B-movies for the Nikkatsu Company between 1956 and 1967, working most prolifically in the yakuza genre. His increasingly surreal style began to draw the ire of the studio in 1963 and culminated in his ultimate dismissal for what is now regarded his magnum opus, Branded to Kill (1967), starring notable collaborator Joe Shishido. Suzuki successfully sued the studio for wrongful dismissal, but he was blacklisted for 10 years after that. As an independent filmmaker, he won critical acclaim and a Japanese Academy Award for hisTaish Trilogy, Zigeunerweisen (1980), Kagero-za (1981) and Yumeji (1991). Aubrey Beardsley Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (21 August 1872 – 16 March 1898) was an English illustrator and author. His drawings, executed in black ink and influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts, emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James A. McNeill Whistler. Beardsley's contribution to the development of the Art Nouveau style and the poster movement was significant, despite the brevity of his career before his early death from tuberculosis.

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imon Talyor / Interview Low Pro Low Pro is a collaborative production group which is based in Tokyo. Simon will participate as a creative director for low pro. Their motto is "intelligence is the most cool and dangerous thing", and have very different values from the luxurious lifestyle seen today. They collaborate with various companies to produce artistic creations and products. Throbbing Gristle Throbbing Gristle was an English avant-garde music and visual arts group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions. The band consisted of Genesis P-Orridge (aka Neil Megson - bass guitar, violin, vocals, vibraphone), Cosey Fanni Tutti (guitars, cornet, vocals), Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson (tapes, found sounds, horns, vibraphone, synthesizer), and Chris Carter (synthesizers, tapes, electronics). Richard Prince Richard Prince (born 1949 in the Panama Canal Zone) is an American painter and photographer. Prince began appropriating photographs in 1975. His image, Untitled (Cowboy), a "rephotograph" of a photograph taken originally by Sam Abell and appropriated from a cigarette advertisement, was the first "rephotograph" to raise more than $1 million at auction when it was sold at Christie's NewYork in 2005.

energy. In terms of design that was perfect because it solved the problem. But you have to look before the problem to understand what design really is and this is where there is a crossover with art, because the problem of art is tapping into emotions. Not making things easier, but pointing things out.

Going to art school does not make you an artist. Researching culture, society and definitions, that is what makes you an artist.

t definitely affects how you develop. I didn’t feel I had finished learning and the people in this group could teach me different approaches. We created Tomato twenty years ago and it still has that energy. I never feel stuck. It is very interesting when you do the same thing over and over again. If you have a creative mind you start to understand what you are doing and to look for quirks. Then you realise that you are developing a language. It is a process of discovery through action. Like playing music with other people, an improvisation. There is a piece that we did together called “Artjam”. We created a wall about forty-five metres long and seven metres tall, with the help of twenty assistants. It was a collaborative live event that we were quite interested in at that point, and very process driven – it was not about the finished result. For me, the outcome is also a film made using 8,000 still photographs. It may not be the best piece of work but it defines collaboration and process quite well.

have been thinking a lot about the differences between art and design over the past few years because what we do Makuhari Artjam / 2007 tends to drive against what people might think of as art. One really big issue is context: whether it is in a gallery or not, it a brand. the level of reproduction. Take a postcard of the I have just created a textile design and it “Mona Lisa”, the painting is a piece of art, the is very specific about how to brand a lot of postcard is a piece of design. It is communication. different products. The textile pattern will be That is the context with which people like applied across everything so the products will Richard Prince play, he will re-photograph a start to be recognised. The design is like a piece photograph but because he completely altered the of op-art. I am saying it is not art but I have context suddenly the Marlboro man – which was actually referred back to 1960s painters to get pure advertising – becomes a piece of art. to this point with this pattern. It may look like an animal skin as well as a tyre tread. What I am most excited about is that the pattern works on so many different scales.

When someone gives you a problem you give your answer for it and if they like it they might consider that you have solved the problem, but actually there are many ways of answering the question.

One of the things that has always been interesting for us at Tomato about working in Japan is that there is an openness to what we might produce for Japanese clients.

Action What we want to do with Low Pro is to present products that we are interested in.

am working with some really interesting people in Tokyo. We have developed a bike and I want to do a guitar as well. We’re not going to reinvent the guitar, but it is going to be my favorite kind of guitar, and we will give

olving the problem for a client is one of the roles of design. Design should ease our lives, make things work in a more productive way. But sometimes that means confusing people. If you think of music, it may be about creating really bad sound. The point of Throbbing Gristle, for example, was to sound like that, not making things easier but releasing another kind of

f course they are all paid projects but they are open to listening to what we think about what things would mean and why. There is no anxiety about what the final result is going to be. Japanese clients are more interested in “getting there” and for us that is great because that is our interest as well. In America it is the polar opposite. It is all about what the final work is going to look like at the end. They want to see it before you have even started! Sometimes you have almost made the entire project without knowing you have been given the job. This anxiety about the final result goes against our philosophy. So far Japan has been really great on that level and it has been like that for over twenty years. We are big fans of Japan for that reason.

I think I have got the big picture now in my own head, I'm not sure if that is going to change.

ut the observation of the position of art in culture will keep changing. Maybe not so much in my lifetime because we are now living in a post-modern age that might have an effect on how people view it. It is a slow moving beast.

The Tomato/Fuji “Black & Blue” bicycle / 2011

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arina Francisco / Interview

Contributor: Cedar Zhou

Metakinesis / 2011

Art is a form of expression. When did you start to be interested in art?

guess I had two important touch points with art when I was a child. My mother is an art therapist so I’ve always seen her immersed in that world. She used to teach me to paint water colors and silk in her spare time. She also had a friend from France that left behind all her Vogues when she went back home. I was delighted to paint mustaches, black teeth and change the eye colors of those beautiful models…I do regret that though! I’ve never thought that any of those things had influenced me at the time but looking back I can certainly see the coincidences. As a child I wasn’t allowed to have video games or watch TV more than 2hours a day. Most of my toys were those German wooden types which I didn’t think were as cool as Barbies, but I thank my mother for that now.

You did your BA in Brazil and your MA in the UK. What is the main difference between Brazil and UK in terms of education?

n my opinion the biggest difference between both places is that in the UK you are much more independent. You need to learn fast and do things on your own. Nobody is going to show you a direction, everything is up to you. I wouldn’t say it’s better or worse, it’s just different. At the same time English tutors are way more critical which I think can be positive and negative to students. Depending on the way you critique it can either push someone forward or push someone down. I guess you need to be aware of that as a student; consider what can actually help you and be aware that nobody is always right.

Tell us about your MA final project and the start of 10 Collective…

he theme of my MA dissertation was Capturing Movement through Still Photography. I’ve handed in 2 posters, one book and a moving image piece that investigated a contemporary dance sequence. I’ve always been very interested and passionate about dance. It always intrigued me as a type of art that only existed for a certain moment, it’s purely ephemeral. Doesn’t matter how many times Rudolf Nureyev danced Corsaire, each time was a one off. This uniqueness fascinates me. To recreate that I’ve projected dance moving image to a piece of floating silk and photographed the sequence every 5 seconds. I’ve repeated that several times, all images captured by the camera were distinct. During the MA course, me and 9 other girlfriends founded 10 Collective. All of us are very different from each other, have different interests and expertise and that’s what I think it makes our collective so special. The atmosphere is friendly, professional and very positive. We help, push and teach each other something new every day. I feel very lucky to be part of that. Last December we had our first collective exhibition ‘Ten Girls Doing It’. Our two-minute viral invitation had more than 2 thousand hits after the first week and we were feature in ‘It’s Nice That’, ‘Jotta’, ‘Form Fifty Five’, ‘Twin Magazine’ and ‘Design Week’ amongst the Hot 50 Graduates.

Free

Do you think Art and Design are different?

hat is a tricky question! I believe art is a free form of expression whereas design is usually concerned to communicate or solve some kind of problem. Art can be interpreted in various ways, design is usually more straight forward and concerned to communicate clearly. Design considers grids, legibility, target audience whilst art can be personal expression. I personally enjoy when art and design merge…How do you call that? Graphic Art?

Marina Francisco

Art

[n] Synonym: emotion Antonym: boredom Quotation: “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”

Rudolf Nureyev Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (Tatar: Rudolf Xämit ulı Nuriev, Russian: ) (17 March 1938 – 6 January 1993) was a Tatar dancer from the former Soviet Union, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.

-Charles Mingus

Marina Francisco Born in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Holds a MA in Graphic Design from the University of Arts London (LCC) and a BA from ESPM in Propaganda & Marketing. Marina moved to London in mid 2009 to do an MA in Graphic Design at the University of Arts London (LCC) which she finished with a First Class Honors in December 2010. In the same year she and another 9 female designers founded 10 Collective. She currently works as a freelance for various design agencies and studios between London and Sao Paolo. http://www.marinafrancisco.com/

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ario Hugo / Interview

Art is a personal and undefinable expression.

And It Was Left Void / 2007

Mario Hugo

Art

[v] - self expression - something that feels explorative Synonyms: Labor Antonyms: Sport

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Contibutor: Lucia Dickman

Michael Ozone / 2011

Cos/Mes / 2010

What is the difference between art and design?

esign is a form of communication similar to a speech or conversation. Everyone has their own expressions, words, discussions, inflections, and arguments, but the ultimate goal of design is communication. Art can be self indulgent, and exist for the artist alone. I think, for example, dancing around like a jackass can be considered as an artful expression, but it is not necessarily communication. When someone commissions me, as a designer, certain constraints and boundaries are implied. I tend to feel that this commissioned work is no longer my personal artwork. That said, I'm happy to learn things, to allow both my art and design to inform one another, and commissioned work certainly still maintains echoes of my voice as an artist.

I'm struggling to find anything of interest, ha ha. What's nice about being influenced by visual stuff as a child is that there are sources of inspiration everywhere - comic books through the kerning in textbooks - as a kid or otherwise, there is always something to look at and study. I used to imitate artwork I found that interested me and I had some great teachers that pushed me to continue doodling in class as long as I was listening. I am grateful to my parents for having exposed me to museums, the ballet, travel - they had great taste. Trips to New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art were my favorites as a kid. I live in New York now and still visit the Met a couple times a year.

Do you think graphic design is different in America than from the UK? How?

ure, I think they are considerably different, but its certainly more difficult to isolate those differences today than it was ten years ago. On one hand, I worry a bit that things like blogs and the internet are homogenizing some of those beautiful differences that cultures and vernaculars contribute to design. On the other hand, I feel pretty eclectic and I don't identify creatively with any one spot on the globe. I think British design is cheeky, colorful, and irreverent - it is frequently beautiful and rarely treats itself too seriously. I think American design is a bit more passionate or expressive - like it is a touch more comfortable showing you a bit of its soul. I can absolutely find examples of the opposite, contradicting everything I have just said. I think we should make works that are able to express ourselves yet without defining a fixed style.

Anni Albers. But I am also infatuated with works of art that aren't exclusively visual "This American Life", "Calvin & Hobbes", films and books. To answer your question, there isn't any one thing that has changed me but many thousands of artworks, stories, and people that have.

Which is the best piece of your works that illustrated your definition of art?

y favorite piece is a large drawing I made some time back for an exhibition I had in Barcelona. It was my first solo show and I took months off from commercial work. The piece is called “And It Was Left Void” - I scavenged for paper at the Strand bookstore for months and drew portraits of my brothers floating within a strange, fantasy typography. The piece was contextualized by other pieces at the exhibition - they were meant to speak to one another as you walked through the space. This piece is very personal to me - it feels like those occasional, intimate moments we have floating on our rock through the universe when we were kids. It was made with time and love - I couldn't ever part with it.

William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement. He founded a design firm in partnership with the artist Edward BurneJones, and the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti which profoundly influenced the decoration of churches and houses into the early 20th century. He was also a major contributor to reviving traditional textile arts and methods of production, and one of the founders of the SPAB, now a statutory element in the preservation of historic buildings in the UK. Morris wrote and published poetry, fiction, and translations of ancient and medieval texts throughout his life. design.

Making Stuff Do you consider yourself an artist or designer?

t's funny, but I prefer not to make those distinctions. Sometimes we spend a lot of time inside our own heads and it’s best not to start drawing lines and boundaries. I think sometimes I am making art, but sometimes not. All that matters is that I allow myself to continue making stuff. Let other people figure out which side of the fence that stuff lies on. In my opinion, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish a designer from an artist but I'm also not sure it is even worth the argument. It's more important to broaden our creative horizons and to explore new environments.

Are there any work you did or saw that have What were your main activities when you totally changed your aspects of art? How? been exposed to and influenced by so many were a child? things - naming these things always I'veamazing

was a boring suburban kid - I played videogames, had a penchant for drawing and doodling in class, rode my bike and listened to music. Honestly,

seems like a discredit to those other thousands I can't name here. William Morris, the Arts and Crafts movement, the Wiener Werkstätte, Paul Klee, Bruno Munari, Ferdinand Hodler, Carvaggio, Josef and

Mario Hugo

Born in New Jersey, U.S.A. Mario is NY based artist, designer, and cofounder of creative consultancy and talent management agency Hugo & Marie. http://www.mariohugo.com/

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yesha / Interview

Contributor: Matt Kendall (http://www.io-magazine.com)

Untitled / 2003

Ayesha

Art [v,n] -philosophy and creation - fun activity Synonyms: Activity Quotation: “An adventure is an experience where you don’t know the outcome” “The meaning or intention of an artist’s work is irrelevant compared to those which the viewer perceives” -Ayesha

Art is a collection of different thoughts and philosophies. When and how were you interested in art?

y memory of childhood is vague. I really don’t know exactly how old I was when I became interested in art, but I have always been interested in it. Art is something I can’t stop doing in my life. My family told me of drawings I had done as a child and this recollection came about as they were looking at my current work and recognising the transformation. The biggest development of my art was at the University in Yorkshire. Throughout my university years I was on a continuous exploration to find my own art form and the style where I felt most at ease. A lot of the time I felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall, as my tutors tried to ‘liberate’ their students with constant encouragement to ‘think outside the box’ and move away from using their own personal style. This felt forced and fake but it allowed me to realize that painting definitely is my release. The university introduced me to using photography and I started to make and incorporate this in my paintings, which has stuck with me throughout my work.

paint, over and over again. When viewing it you are able to see all of the layers creeping through which have then been scraped away further, this gave me a sense of creating something really magnificent and then having the strength to ‘tear it apart’.

What would be the best piece of your work that illustrates your definition of art?

cannot mention only one piece of my work that singularly sums up my definition of art. To do that would defy my favourite theory of societies: multiple personalities and perceptions that are credible in their own right. I will say though that with the way public art works it seems to be all about knowing the right people, making the right contacts and winning as many competitions as your ability allows. So with this in mind I would choose a self portrait I had done at school and then entered into a competition that managed to pass the initial stages for the national portrait awards and was almost shortlisted. Even though I’ve had many 'breakthrough' paintings since, this was the first piece I was truly proud of.

presumptuous to assume that to call yourself an artist is conditional on the amount of work you sell or how famous you become. Many artists did not become famous for their creations until they died, does that mean that throughout their working artistic life, they were not considered artists? I think art is a process rather than a status most of the time.

What does art mean to you?

would say that for me, it is a release, a comfort blanket. It is something that is so familiar to me that it comes naturally and instinctively. Art is a way of life for me and I wouldn’t want to go about my daily life without it. It’s like when you listen to your favourite songs and know all the lyrics. The process of creating is addictive! Sometimes after I have created a piece of work I get a real adrenaline high....that is until I get bored of the temporary self-appraisal and want to take a step back and start to create something new all over again.

Gerhard Richter (born February 9, 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has simultaneously produced abstract and photorealistic painted works, as well as photographs and glass pieces, thus undermining the concept of the artist’s obligation to maintain a single cohesive style. Nearly all of Richter’s work demonstrates both illusionistic space that seems natural and the physical activity and material of painting—as mutual interferences. For Richter, reality is the combination of new attempts to understand—to represent; in his case, to paint—the world surrounding.

Release Is there any work you that you have done or seen that has totally changed your perception of art?

bstract art has never been my favourite. I have always preferred work that looks as though the creator has put a lot of time and effort into it in a more obvious way. However there are a couple of pieces of work that I remember. One is Gerhard Richter’s piece at the Tate Modern, where he used layers of

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Do you consider yourself an artist?

bsolutely. I create art therefore I am. An artist should be labelled as such while they create artwork, just as a person with a guitar who creates music is surely a musician! I have been lucky to have had exhibitions around England, especially 2009, when my work was shown in a variety of locations, from a Waterstones bookshop in Enfield to a festival in Camden town. People should not be so

Ayesha

Born in London, England. Graduated with a BA in Fine Art from the University in Yorkshire. Whilist Ayesha works in a primary school, she continues to draw and paint and also exhibits in galleries throughout london. http://artayesha.jimdo.com/

G L O S S A RY : A RT The definitions of art are changing from time to time. What is the meaning of art now? Art Glossary collected the definitions of art from people who have a different background, career and age. We are here to introduce the varieties of art definition to you.

Daimen Hirst

Luna Carilli

(1965-)

(1986-)

(1914-1996)

Artist

Singer

Graphic Designer

Art at beginning is an adventure, then it become a bit boring. But it comes to be interesting again because it is more than money.

Art is an idea that has found its perfect visual expression. And design is the vehicle by which this expression is made possible. Art is a noun, and design is a noun and also a verb. Art is a product and design is a process. Design is the foundation of all the arts.

I think art is good at looking back and looking forward. I don't think art is good at looking head-on. At the end of the day, people are more important than paintings.

A B C D E F G H I

Annalaura MasciavĂ¨ / Italy Art is anything that can give us emotions able to lead our mind into the extra daily, wich can make us imagine of anything other than reality we live every day. Barbara Cortili / Italy Blending disparate amounts of creativity, beauty and emotion all together we can obtain that powerful,soul nourishing energy called Art.

Christina Madry / United States Art is something inspired me. Clara Suc / Hong Kong Destructive, Brain Power, enrichment, therapy, comprehensive expression. Danilo De Rosa / Italy Art is an artifact, trying to create dialogue between artist and audience, is expression of personal thinking of artist from conceptualization, something you can do and you should do. Edward Degas / France Art is not what you see, but what you make other see. Eliza Fox / Germany Art is to deal with any kind of space.

Frida Kahlo / Mexico I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration. Garvey-George Harris / United Kingdom It makes me curious. It is an experience. Georges Braque / France Art disturbs, science reassures.

Henri Matisse / France What I dream of is an art of balance. Hyeon Jeong Ji / Korea Through art to know artist thought and experience.

Isa Wai / Hong Kong Art is Happy. Art is Subjective. Ivan Lee / Hong Kong Everything I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand is Art.

J K L M N O P Q R

Jackson Pollock / United States The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. Janet lui / Hong Kong Art is an attitude of looking sideways. Katerina Georgopoulou / Greek Touching the untouchable and communicate it to the world. Kristian Kruse / Denmark Art is no boundary. Lio Yeung / Hong Kong Everything you think it is art, is art .

Mamiko Naito / Japan Art is a visual food for our soul. Mayu Ishiyama / Japan Ary is wonder.

Nikoletta Staikou / Greece For me art is the mutiny, the revolt, the total destruction of everything that destroys us! Nattapakan Apiwatmongkol / Thailand Art is nothing but everything, have to be wrong or short. Otl Aicher / Germany Good art inspires; Good design motivties.

Pablo Picasso / Spain We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies. Not defined yet.

Richard Christopher / India Art is a catalyst to find answer of solution. Robert Surpateanu / Romania Where one expresses one true inner feelings!

Paul Rand

S T U V W X Y Z

Santiago Aparicio Velasquez / Colombia Art is expression of spiritual dimension. Shirley Sheung / Hong Kong Art is life.

Thomas Ng / Hong Kong See oneself from the deep inside 1st (not the audience or the money source.)

Not defined yet.

Xiaolei Liu / China Art is a powerful tool we use to understand and communicate with the world, with ourselves.

Yael Orkan / Israel Art is like colour to the blind, symphony to the deaf, it's a desire to explore beyond the unachievable. Y Lin / Taiwan Art is as sexy as science. Zhanel Sydykova / Kazakhstan Art is something that made at least one person to think beyond literal vision or piont of view, beyond usual thoughts.

Speak up and be part of the collection of definitions of art and design. Email us: definition@art-glossary.com

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International Designers Conversation | COLLAGE

To Expect The Unexpected

Albireo / 2010-12

Contributor : Camille Wong

“To expect the unexpected” shows a thoroughly modern intellect.” This famous quote by Oscar Wilde can describe the emergence of collage in the 20th century in conjunction with modernism. The term collage derives from the French word ‘coller’ which means ‘glue’. Although collage techniques were employed to an extent in the rarefied contexts of poetry and religious iconography in ancient China, the Hian period of Japan and Medieval Europe, they didn’t begin to be appreciated for their formal and conceptual resonance until the early 20th century. The term ‘collage’ was coined by both Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso and developed into an idea much more than cutting out and sticking down. The Futurists and the Dadaists employed collage to protest entrenched values, while the artists of the Russian avant-garde used photomontage, an outgrowth of collage, to demonstrate their support for a progressive world order. For the Surrealists, collage served as a surrogate for the subconscious. Pop artists recognized it as a means of directly incorporating elements of popular culture into their work. Art Glossary has a live-online chat with the living artists and designers from Hong Kong, Japan and Netherlands who keep on practicing the idea of collage.

Alchiba / 2010-07

BIANCA RUNGE / Netherlands Bianca Runge, through her collages explores the paradox of reality which poses new questions as one gazes at her works. In her book, titled :no subject, she seems to question the very idea and concept of needing a theme or subject for creation. Her collages may lack a cohesive subject or a theme, but to a viewer they seem to cut through the reality imposed by the so-called objectivism. http://www.biancarunge.nl

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Alcor / 2010-04

Visions of the crystal beyond / 2009

KEIJI ITO / Japan 1958, Born in Tokyo, Japan. Unidentified Frying Graphics inc. Director Graphic artist Kyoto University of Art and Design, Professor Palette club, Kyoto International Academy School, Lecturer Main works are painting, art direction and art work for advertisement, book, music CD sleeve, video clip, etc.

Supermarket dub / 2010

Pornographic anatomy: operation I / 2009

Second Life- P58-59 / 2010

Second Life / 2010

Second Life- P62-63 / 2010

http://www.site-ufg.com/

Second Life- P66-67 / 2010

Second Life- P38-39 / 2009

KAY AU YEUNG / Hong Kong Kay Au Yeung has been making collages for 10 years. She is fascinated by the period of Dadaism and she believes that collage is an everlasting form of art. http://www.dadababyk.com/

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International Designers Conversation | COLLAGE

Art Glossary LONDON 9:00

Where did your love of collage art come from?

Keiji Ito

Bianca Runge

Kay Au Yeung

TOKYO 18:00

AMSTERDAM 11:00

HONG KONG 19:00

Keiji: When I was a high school student, I met Surrealists and they led me to the world of collage. At that time, I liked the works of Max Ernst but still felt a distance between collage and me. When I was in an art college, my friend showed me his artworks which are very noisy and realistic. His works were extremely shocking and inspiring to me. It was the time that I felt collage became very close to me and that’s how I started collage.

Bianca: Collage was more common in advertising When I was young. Later, I entered in Art School and started looking for a manner to question reality which at the same time can go through reality. At first, I started constructing minimal art. When I was constructing, I thought of using existing photographs because everybody saw a picture as a representation of reality. That’s how I started making collage. Nowadays, Photoshop makes things become easier and you can change everything in a photo to create your own reality.

Keiji: Bianca, why were you interested in Minimal Art at the beginning?

Bianca: It’s more like a start from nothing and creates something completely new. For example start from scratch. Almost everything has been done in art, so when you start from nothing, I hope to create or find more.

Keiji seems interested in your idea of building from scratch. As collage is always started by ready-made materials, does it mean that it is an assemblage of something already in progress?

Keiji: That’s an interesting approach because collage artists usually build collage with something existed in the first place. Subtraction of collage is an evolutionary way in these days.

To Kay, collage is a way of expressing her daily experiences and emotions. Keiji and bianca.

What does collage mean to you?

*1. Dada Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. [1] The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works. Its purpose was to ridicule what its participants considered to be the meaninglessness of the modern world. In addition to being anti-war, dada was also anti-bourgeois and anarchist in nature.

Kay: Same for me. I started collage when I was about 19 years old. At that time, I was in collage and was impressed by the works of Dadaists, Viva Dada*1 and Surrealists.

Bianca: Collage offers an opportunity for the mind to find new ways to see what things we used to see. Building from scratch is like creating something from the very beginning. Maybe that’s the reason why I take away those parts that most collage artists use.

Collage artists usually collect tons of images form various sources, such as magazines, photo books and etc, but bianca only uses one book in a single work. That’s how minimal art*2 influences her.

Keiji: There are so many reasons why I’m doing collage. One of the important reasons is that collage requires an editing technique. Editing is an objective approach. I’m fascinated with the unexpected outcomes when all materials were put together. That’s dépaysement. Collage is an efficient way to observe myself both subjectively and objectively. You can feel the energy not only from your inner part, but the outer environments at the same time. As a creator, watching myself from a bird’s-eye view is a very important approach.

Bianca: Does Kay always make collages in a book?

*2. Minimalism Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features. As a specific movement in the arts it is identified with developments in post–World War II Western Art, most strongly with American visual arts in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with this movement include Donald Judd, John McLaughlin, Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Robert Morris, Anne Truitt, and Frank Stella. It is rooted in the reductive aspects of Modernism, and is often interpreted as a reaction against Abstract expressionism and a bridge to Postmodern art practices.

Second Life- P44-45 / 2010

Kay: Yes I do. It is because I love books. Also, I love hand made stuff. I call my collage ‘the visual diary’, and have kept on doing it for 10 years already. Collage is a fragment of my life, a process of selfdevelopment and a stock of my feelings. Collage is everlasting to me like music. You taste it and you feel it.

Diary- P22-23 / 2007

Art Glossary

Keiji Ito

Bianca Runge

Kay Au Yeung

LONDON 9:00

TOKYO 18:00

AMSTERDAM 11:00

HONG KONG 19:00

Keiji: I have been doing collage for 30 years because I always see myself objectively. I never get bored by the process of taking things out of your world and combining them together in a new vision. The secret of being a creator for a long time is to understand the art of editing.

I usually have some visual idea in my mind first, but I only decide what I want to make after I see all the materials. Materials expand my imagination. In my studio, I have a bag of photos. I don’t categorize them at all, so the pictures are random. I usually start making collage by spreading the photos all over on the desk, then sort out right images for the work. I also look into old magazines. Making collage is like a fieldwork, because I hunt images from all sources I have. This process is passive in a sense, but I can examine my work objectively.

Bianca: Keiji spoke for me already. The only difference is that I have been doing collage for 18 years.

Bianca: Do you use a computer to polish your work, Keiji?

Keiji: I use a computer only when I want some effects which analog can’t do, for example copying the same image, making symmetry, and creating spectacle scenery. A computer helps to make illusionary images. The cover of Design Plex is an example of my digital works. There is a rule for designing the cover of this magazine: the face of the featured artist must appear. Actually the face of the kid on the beach is my face. I made it out of focus to create a depth of field.

16 Cover for Design Plex magazine / 2001

Collage has sometimes been criticized for being nostalgic because collage artists tend to use old materials. What do you think?

What do you think of others’ work?

Kay: When did you make this cover, Keiji?

Keiji: Almost 10 years ago. It was a time which digital collage was already popular in Japan. I installed a computer in my studio 20 years ago when you guys were pretty much kids at that time.

Keiji: I don’t think that’s true. I believe that both old and new materials have the same values. I guess one of the reasons why collage artists tend to use old materials is copyright. I avoid using new magazines. Copyright is a sensitive issue, but the purpose of collage is to change context by using existing materials.

Keiji: Bianca’s works look simple. However, I can feel her philosophy behind. The cutting edge she left on the images is like shaving off of images. That creates dynamism in her works.

Bianca: Old and new images are fine to me as well. Since I always take away the subject matters, I don’t think there will be a big problem in copyright issue. It’s also a matter of finance. I need a lot of books to make my collages. That’s why I use books from the 70s and 80s that I bought in second hand bookstores. What kind of materials should be used is also determined by the context. For my ‘pin-ups series’, I only used old pictures because they have the right look and are more about sensuality than sexuality, like nowadays.

Kay: I use old magazines, postcards, and other people’s memos for my collage. But I don’t use iconic images that everyone knows. I believe that old images have souls. They are different from images nowadays regarding the visual elements and feelings.

Second Life- P50-51 / 2010

Kay: Her technique is different from mine. She takes out the main subject, and tries to transform its meaning.

International Designers Conversation | COLLAGE

Keiji Ito

Art Glossary LONDON 9:00

TOKYO 18:00

Keiji: I love Kay’s works. Her works are extremely realistic, and look like a girl’s diary. Each work has a good composition and is totally free in form. They are abstract, realistic and noisy. Her styles also change in time, and I think it is because her works represent her feelings.

Bianca Runge

Kay Au Yeung

AMSTERDAM 11:00

HONG KONG 19:00

Keiji: I pay a lot of attention to a color combination. Colors affect other components, so I choose them very carefully.

Does the culture in your native countries inspire you? How?

Bianca: I totally agree with both of you. Some people think that collage is more or less the same, but it can be very different in nature. Like a painter uses paint to express himself, we use ready-made ‘paint’ and colors to express ours. In some ways, we are more attracted to the process of creation. For me, it is all about discovering. There is so much to discover. I have tried to paint my collages once but eventually think that they are good in the way they are. All I have to do is to enlarge them to make sure that people can see the world in my eyes.

Keiji: The city of Tokyo is a collage itself. Since there is no long-term city planing, each district in Tokyo looks very different. I don’t think many people notice this. If you look at the signs and advertisements on the building, they look like a patch work.

Alfirk / 2010

Kay, you said that you are not influenced by the Hong Kong culture at all. Is it because Hong Kong people don’t recognize collage as a form of art?

Yes. Collage is not popular in Hong Kong, and sometimes people even don’t know what collage is. It is not considered as an art form. It is difficult to name a collage artist in Hong Kong.

Keiji and Bianca, what do people think about collage in your country?

Second Life- P44-45/ 2010

I am inspired by Japanese old prints, such as Hiroshige and Hokusai. Their compositions are very simple, but make a depth of field. In addition to this, I love the works of Jakuchu Ito and Shohaku Soga. They were just crazy.

Thank you. My work is a reflection of myself, a way of self-development. Keiji’s works are very trendy. They look modern to me. I think the color combination make his works modern and stylish.

I think one of the reasons is that it is difficult to find good materials for collage in Hong Kong. Because people in Hong Kong tend to throw things away very easily, so it is difficult to find old materials.

Keiji: So you can be the first Hong Kong collage artist!

Keiji: Making fanzines becomes more and more popular among young generations in Japan nowadays. I can feel that young people are willing to express themselves freely. Collage becomes borderless as well. One day I watched a documentary about Japanese high school girls. They collect purikura*3(small photo sticker) in their note books.

*3(Purikura in note books) Second Life- P60-61 / 2010

Keiji Ito

Art Glossary LONDON 9:00

TOKYO 18:00

Bianca Runge

Kay Au Yeung

AMSTERDAM 11:00

HONG KONG 19:00

Keiji: I think it can be seen as a form of collage. In fact, Japanese traditional culture is related to collage as well. Soutatsu Tawaraya*4, a painter in 17th century, used illustrations from Heian era (8th12th century) and collage techniques to create a painting of Japanese traditional dancers. The amazing thing about his work is its spatial composition. The positions of the dancers create a nervous tension in the space.

Bianca: Collage is not taken seriously as an art form in my country. Most people think that it is easy to create collage by cutting and pasting pictures. They don’t see the subtlety of the works and the approach used behind the works. There are only a few real collage artists, and the sad thing is that people think we are making similar works.

gold and silver for his writing. Sotatsu excelled in projects that needed careful placing of decorative screens and fans, and took this to its highest level. He pioneered a new boldness of color and line. He popularized a technique called tarashikomi, which was carried out by dropping one color onto another while the first was still wet. Sotatsu also developed an original style of monochrome painting, where the

ink was used sensuously, as if it were color. Among his best works are the illustrated covers he painted for the Lotus Sutra.

*4. Tawaraya Sotatsu Tawaraya Statsu (early 17th century) was a Japanese artist and also the co-founder of the Rimpa school of Japanese painting. Sōtatsu began to work as a fanpainter in Kyoto. Later, he rose to work for the court as a producer of fine decorated papers for calligraphy. He was highly influenced by Kyoto’s courtly culture. Sōtatsu met the great designer and calligrapher Hon’ami Koetsu, and painted under-designs in

What is your future plan?

To sum up, what is your definition of art?

Bianca: I am making a ‘virtual hub’ for the arts. It’s not really a collage making but it can be seen as a combination of different kinds of art together. I want to make people more aware of what art is and what it stands for. So apart from collage making, I started a website and I am busy in learning to make a professional website. (www.lesecet.nl)

Kay: I want to make bigger works because mine are always small. And I also want to experimenting new materials.

Bianca: ART = LIVE. Art makes people see things in different ways. It tells the world there is no ‘one reality’ and reality depends on how you make it. Artists show people the way to look into themselves and see what is inside. Art should wake up the people in every way the artists can think of.

Kay: Art is a sense of beauty. It is a platform to express things and a way to show your thoughts. Some art contains context and social concerns of human races.

Keiji: Art is imagination. Since humans started cultivation in ancient times, people have more time to tell and make stories. That’s how all fairy tales began. I think the first person who drew something on the cave wall must be inspired by some kinds of signs, like the apes touched the Monolith in 2001: Space Odyssey’.

On the other hand, art is connected to the commercial market. Nowadays, art becomes an investment. I feel sad when I compare primitive art with art in the market.

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Editor in Chief & Founder Masafumi Inaba minaba@art-glossary.com Editor & Founder Lio Yeung lio@art-glossary.com Operation Manager & Founder Zhou Cedar cedar@art-glossary.com Contributor Joana Flizola joana@art-glossary.com Camille Wong camille@art-glossary.com Matt Kendall mpkendall@gmail.com

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