Self-portrait with broken heart

WHEN THE quake-tsunami disaster devastated Japan’s northeast in March 2011, killing thousands and sparking a nuclear crisis that is still wreaking misery today, it also swept away the inspiration of one of Japan’s most famous contemporary artists, Yoshitomo Nara.

Known best for his deceptively simple, almost cartoon-like canvases featuring sometimes sinister images of young girls and animals, the 55-year-old was so devastated by the destruction wreaked on his home region he found himself unable to paint.

Four years later, in his largest show in Asia outside Japan – at Hong Kong’s Art Basel exhibition – his latest works focus on death and the impermanence of life. The title piece, “Life is Only One”, features his trademark innocent young girl – this time holding a skull.

Arriving in Hong Kong to open the show, Nara talked about the impact of the disaster on Japan’s art scene, his plans to visit Lapland, and a pair of Spock ears given to him by the late “Star Trek” actor Leonard Nimoy.

 

HOW DID THE FUKUSHIMA DISASTER AFFECT YOU ON A PERSONAL LEVEL?

It made me feel helpless. I live 100 kilometres from the Fukushima power plant and I was born in Hirosaki in Aomori prefecture [north of the disaster zone], where my mother still lives. People told me to run away to escape from the place, but I preferred to stay there to try to help. But I felt helpless as an artist, and as someone from the northeast, as though my art can’t really do anything for people.

For a while I couldn’t really focus on painting. In about six months I did one painting, whereas I would normally do 10 or more. Instead, I started to make sculptures. I wanted to use my hands to touch something and make a mark. I went back to Aichi [Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music in Nagakute, his alma mater], where I felt more comfortable – it was a kind of rehabilitation.

 

HOW DID THE DISASTER AFFECT JAPANESE ART, MORE BROADLY?

Part of Japan’s history was lost. There was a very famous place for making traditional ceramics, where everything was destroyed. All the kilns were broken – very, very old traditional kilns that no one will make again – and the ceramics I had made myself were all destroyed. There were lots of museums that had very good collections of traditional works that were destroyed as well.

But it’s not just art that was lost – a lot of people lost the images of their families. If you have lost all of your albums and videos so you can no longer see your grandpa or grandma, or your parents, compared with the loss of culture or art, it’s more sad to lose something like that.

 

YOU HAVE SAID YOU DON’T LIKE THE SOCIAL MEDIA, BUT YOU USE THEM A LOT.

For me the social media have limitations. I only show the part I want to show people – there are so many things I don’t show. Maybe you think I’m a very open, very cool person, but I’m not! So many people want to look at me, to know me, but on social media I can choose what I want to show.

 

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE AMONG YOUR WORKS?

There’s no particular artwork I prefer. It’s more about what I went through when I painted that work. Artworks don’t just come from one thing or one particular incident. It’s like layers of the past. I put lots of different elements in the early paintings, which I thought was clearer. Now I paint only one thing and it can explain everything.

 

WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO NEXT?

Next I want to go on a trip to paint. My goal is not just to be an artist but to travel, and to continue to travel as an artist. I’d like to go to Lapland. I like the reindeer and I come from “the north”, so I like the landscape: full of snow, white.

 

YOU KNEW LEONARD NIMOY AND HE ONCE GAVE YOU SOME SPOCK EARS. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THEM?

Just pray. He was a very kindly, nice person. He also had a childish heart – when he invited me to his house for dinner you could see toy trains on tracks running along the walls. 

It’s a sad loss, but after the disaster and my father’s death, I realised that everyone will die, and I think Leonard led a perfect life. 

I also think I will try to do my best before I die. I am 55 years old – I have already finished half of the marathon – but I’m saving some energy for a powerful last spurt.