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I WISH YOU WERE SO UGLY JUST LIKE ME The Drawings of Yusuke Okada Introduction by Keegan Mills Cooke
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Copyright Š 2016 Yusuke Okada Introduction Š 2016 Keegan Mills Cooke All drawings by Yusuke Okada Layout by Michael Stasiak All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval without permission in writing from the author. Published in the United States by Captured Tracks Books in 2016. Captured Tracks is a division of Omnian Music Group www.omnianmusicgroup.com Email: pamela@omnianmusicgroup.com Give feedback on the book at: mike@omnianmusicgroup.com.com
Printed in U.S.A First Edition 6
ISBN: 978-0-692-79663-4
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AN INTRODUCTION
Years back, I asked Yusuke to bring a selection of his drawings to my house to assist in scanning some favorite pieces for inclusion in a small book I wanted to publish. We had been discussing the project for awhile, and I had in my mind a well edited and cohesive set, including his fake Charlie Chaplin characters, a series of imagined “New Yorker” covers, and other loose items. He showed up, in the rain, with a trash bag sloppily folded around irregularly stacked sheets of varying size. It was as if the Sunday Times, with all its supplements, had come unfolded in transit, been spun around in a small whirlwind, and deposited haphazardly back into the floppy receptacle. It was a nice introduction to Yusukes ever-expanding collection of work. If we look around us, there is a groundswell of preciousness in every direction. We casually broadcast our self-defined legacies, carefully selected lives and strategic associations. Sometimes Yusuke seems to exist apart from this reality though. In his art, he issues some of his ugliest thoughts alongside some of his sweetest, neither being presented as more valid than the other. He shows up at your door with a massive stack of drawings, representing countless hours of thought and labor, loosely gathered in a trash bag. They are stained, torn, dog-eared and worn and, because of this are somehow all the more representative of Yusuke himself. He might have us believing these are not precious moments, but I’m lucky to know better. I know the mind from which these ideas emerge. It’s one capable of all sorts of magical thinking, curious associations, and clever solutions to problems that don’t exist. It’s always amazing to bear witness to this kind of thinking, and it’s often what I enjoy most in art... The Inexplicable. That irrational choice made by some other brain in some other body. The resulting wonderment, I find to be one of the more potent byproducts of the human creative spirit. To me, Yusuke is full of this.
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I hope we all recognize kindred souls when we happen upon them. I immediately observed myself in some of the work I sorted through for inclusion in this book. That is not to say I feel that Yusuke’s drawings represent some collective concern; his vision is very much that of an individual. It’s just relatable. This is work steeped in self doubt, loneliness, insecurity and anxiety. Yet, it doesn’t dwell in its darkness. It maintains a pronounced playfulness. His characters tread a comic fulcrum where two costumed mice holding hands might teeter-totter opposite a solitary man whose shadow has a shotgun in its mouth. This is the creative expression of hopefulness and trepidation. These characters wish for joy while quietly dreading each unavoidable and unknowable moment they have yet to live. That’s relatable.
His work also displays a clear appreciation for materials and process. This is evident in washes of watercolor and the quality of line made by brush pens. Allowing process to dictate form requires a particular patience and a methodology of acceptance. Embracing an irregular flow of ink or pigment necessitates a kind of material optimism. To me, this thought functions as spiritual ballast for the more dire or personal moments illustrated in his oeuvre. This type of approach being employed to illustrate such somber characters and desperate thoughts is, to me, odd and beautiful. But where does this work come from? It’s playfully grotesque, absurdist, and full of anxious color. An early influence by Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer might manifest itself in the form of a train arriving or departing a man’s head in a metaphorical rollercoaster of thought. The nonsensical narrative forms seen in fake dance charts and other off-kilter comic style work show a clear desire to serialize his drawings in the manner of heroic Japanese graphic novelists like Yoshiharu Tsuge, or Shigeru Mizuki. Yusuke’s general interest in walking the line between sinister and sweet is something he shares with so many of my heroes in art and literature, but he stops short of strictly emulating any particular heroes. Inspirational queues are absorbed and gestated alongside his own thoughts and stories. These illustrations are of his own realities, imagined or lived. Yusuke’s continuous creative evolution is hopefully somewhat evident over the course of this book. Its one of the things that has made it so difficult to put forth a cohesive collection of his work. A quick stop at a stationary store might yield a whole new body of work based on buying a new pen and a pile of 50 cent black and white postcards. His constant flow of new ideas and working methods is hard to summarize in any concise way. The sheen of new things eclipses old things at such a constant rate, it has an editor constantly revising and reordering themselves. But Yusuke isn’t fond of tidy packages, is he? And so, this book represents just a small selection of his recent creative output. Some favorites are here and some are missing. I often reflect on a time awhile back when Yusuke had created a series of drawings that he felt were his best yet. His favorites. A friend was excited to buy them, but he was nervous about selling, thinking perhaps he’d like to keep them instead. I told him he should do what he wants to, even if it means losing a few dollars. The next day he told me he’d decided to hand them off. He’d make new favorites. Keegan Mills Cooke May 2016 9
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For Barker Gee and Jamie Ewing
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LIST OF WORKS
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Page 4 Page 5 Page 7 Page 12-13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 19 Page 20-21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24-25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 29 Page 30 Page 32 Page 33 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38-41 Page 43 Page 44-45 Page 46 Page 49 Page 50 Page 53 Page 54 Page 57 Page 58-59 Page 61 Page 62 Page 65 Page 66 Page 69 Page 71 Page 72 Page 75 Page 76-77 Page 78 Page 81 Page 83 Page 85 Page 87 Page 88-89 Page 90-91 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99
Emily Dickinson, 2014 Neu Yorker, 2014 Untitled, 2013 Knitting, 2016 Yoru II, 2014 Yoru, 2014 Dance Chart, 2015 Dance Chart II, 2015 Rain, 2013 Neu Yorkers, 2013-2016 Untitled, 2015 Self Portrait, 2015 Umi, 2014 Invitation, 2015 Baby , 2013 Untitled, 2015 Observer, 2013 My friend’s Wedding , 2014 Be My Widow, 2014 Half Awake, 2014 Untitled, 2016 Surfin’ USA, 2013 I Miss My Home, 2013 Untitled, 2012 Welcome Home, 2014 Untitled, 2014 Untitled, 2014 Untitled, 2013 Family Tree III, 2013 We Live, 2013 Untitled, 2013 Don’t Ignore, 2015 Untitled, 2014 Untitled, 2014 Untitled, 2014 Untitled, 2014 Untitled, 2014 Untitled, 2014 Untitled, 2013 Untitled, 2013 Summer Time, 2013 Goodbye Sunball, 2011 I, 2012 II, 2012 III, 2012 Untitled, 2015 Untitled, 2016 Surfer, 2015 Cut, 2015 Vomit, 2015 Roller Coaster, 2015 Alcohol, 2016 Untitled, 2016 Mierda, 2016 Blind Date, 2012
Ink on post card Ink and watercolor on paper Sumi ink and watercolor on postcard Ink, watercolor and pencil on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink, watercolor and coffe grounds on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink, watercolor and coffee grounds on paper Ink and acrylic on photograph Ink on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink, watercolor and coffee grounds on paper Ink and water color on paper Ink on paper Watercolor, pencil and coffee grounds on paper Watercolor and pencil on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Silk screen on paper (with Amy Fierro) Ink, watercolor and coffee grounds on paper Ink, watercolor and coffee grounds on paper Ink and coffee grounds on board Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and acrylic on photograph Ink and watercolor on paper Ink, watercolor and acrylic on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper Ink and watercolor on paper 101
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Yusuke Okada was born in Tokyo, Japan. He has been living on and off in New York since 2009. Currently, he lives in Ridgewood, Queens, where he continues to draw, paint and write original songs.
Find him: www.yusukeokadaart.com Write him: yusukesokada@gmail.com 103