takahiro fujiwara

	nmp international



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Kengo:	Your major at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music was oil painting, wasn't it? Were you involved in painting as a student?
Fujiwara:	No, I wasn't. My first work was one where I took a mold of my whole body, and used its parts to create one form... At that time, I probably had a vague interest in my body or the physical body.
Kengo:	Looking at your previous works, it seems you had many which took up sexuality, but did you first start from an interest in the physical body?
Fujiwara:	There was nothing that profound. Looking back, maybe there was a big influence from Takeshi.
Kengo:	Beat Takeshi?
Fujiwara:	Yes. In my generation, listening to the radio at midnight was the trend when we were elementary or junior high students; we were even listening while studying for the entrance exams. From about 5th grade, I loved the program called "All Night Nippon" by Beat Takeshi, and I could say that that program influenced my life from then on. That program mainly talked about "sexual" subjects, and I loved that (laugh). I realize this now, but I liked to make people laugh or to surprise them, and in that program called "All Night Nippon" by Beat Takeshi, using "sexual" subjects, he made people laugh by not expressing them directly, and I thought that was amazing. I think making people laugh is an intelligent act, and I respect those entertainers.
Kengo:	So you had a desire to move people in that way. Why has that become an artistic expression in the end?
Fujiwara:	My mother is a painter, and since my childhood, I had been breathing the smell of oil paint in my house...and I also liked to create things. So I wondered what I could do, since I knew I could not become an entertainer (laugh). I thought there must be an area I could excel in. I had been told I drew well since my childhood, and I like to create things, so maybe I had thought that I could do something with that talent.
Kengo:	Shall I talk about "sexual" subjects?
Fujiwara:	One problem about that is - coming back to Takeshi's program - among the "sexual" jokes, those that are too direct could simply sound vulgar and become disgusting. However, stopping right before that delicate line and making a joke requires superior technique (laugh). Making people laugh is a difficult task, and you need strategy.
Kengo:	That kind of consciousness lay at the origin of your works?
Fujiwara:	In my works, there are many using "sexual toys" as a motif, and naturally it leads to the subject of sex, but actually sex itself has little to do with them. Of course I love women and sex, and they are things that I think about most (laugh). I think if you can develop a work from such a fundamental place, it will become most real. When I'm asked what the concept is, I say "life is the first priority" (laugh).
Kengo:	As far as the works go, I feel something very "Tokyo-ish" in them. I think Tokyo doesn't have much suppression for these expressions. There are things that will be considered unacceptable if it were overseas.
Fujiwara:	That may be so. Foreigners often ask me whether something is allowed.
Kengo:	I think expressing something sexual like that cheerfully is very "Tokyo-ish".
Fujiwara:	Sex is something everyone is interested in. However, using your own experience is too "physical", and by using something like a "sexual toy" which does not refer to "life/body" but is "cute" in terms of taste, one can get away with dealing with a taboo... Bringing a "cute" image into the work could be like a bait to lead the (audience) into the work.
Kengo:	In other words, you bring in such an element to broaden the entrance into the work. I think in Tokyo, that strategy is effective. But if you showed this in Europe, you would have a different reaction. The effect will be received more seriously. I think (in Europe), they have a more political and historical view towards sexual expressions. (While looking at a photograph of a child riding on a work based on the motif of a Dutch wife) I think this would especially be controversial.
Fujiwara:	Yes. I've been told that many times. So I think this may be something I can only do in Japan.
Kengo:	How did these children react?
Fujiwara:	I brought it to a park for the photo shoot, and the children were delighted thinking a new toy had arrived. That's why the mothers with them asked me "Are you from the ward office?" (laugh). For this work, I had not been thinking of having people ride on it, but since the children said they wanted to, I did, and they were really enjoying playing with it.
Kengo:	But were the mothers alright after seeing what the work was?
Fujiwara:	They were a little nervous, but when I explained that I was a Tokyo University of Art student and that I came to shoot my artwork, they allowed their children to ride.
Kengo:	The mothers probably strangely approved of the fact that you were an art student and didn't think that deeply about the work. It's unthinkable overseas. Do you have a limit for such kinds of expressions?
Fujiwara:	Yes. I use these "sexual toys" in order to supplement the part about sex which I cannot express directly.
Kengo:	There are many artists overseas who deal with physical issues related to sex, but in your case, rather than using the body itself, you use these tools as a mediation for sexual pleasure.
Fujiwara:	Yes. As I stated earlier, it's not about sex itself. It's one of the opportunities for choice. Whether you manipulate or are manipulated by a certain desire. I said earlier that "life is good", but I think everyone is being superficial in the core areas towards desire.
Kengo:	It's true that we aren't sure whether we know our sexual desires well. I think because there is no suppression about that in Tokyo, we may be insensitive towards the place where our desires lie. Looking at your work, I also get the impression that our desires are so artificial and unsubstantial like a balloon. In Tokyo, even children can easily get a pornographic magazine/book, and there may be no suppression of sado-masochism or homosexuality.
Fujiwara:	Yes, there are much suppression. To create my works, I did various interviews, and when homosexual people go home, they have a wife and children, and they also have high positions in the office. However, the minute they publicize the fact that they are homosexual, all those things become damaged. So they don't show that at all in public. But that may be why they understand the true nature of desire.
Kengo:	Maybe we should say that there is no suppression of sexual expressions rather than sexual things. In the media, all aspects of information related to sex is available, and there, sado-masochism, homosexuality, and things that are usually considered taboo are handled very casually. However, because of that, the fantasy about sex is on a downward swing like the stock market (laugh). That's why people don't even understand their own desires unless they are shown further and further stimulating things. Looking at your work, I'm starting to feel that they're telling us to remember the proper desires (laugh).
Fujiwara:	Maybe (laugh). Because there's so much information, I feel it's a waste that the important things are being overlooked. The Tokyo I see seems that it doesn't try to fully satisfy its desire, only pretending to be satisfied at a certain level. So in the case of my work, I can't express unless I make it a joke. Because in truth, it's too much a serious problem.
Kengo:	In reality, we don't look at the dark part, only consuming the casual information. We may be scooping only the top layer of desire.
Fujiwara:	But it may be OK for now. That is accepted, and that may be what Tokyo is.
	(At Studio Shokudo, Tokyo, December, 1997)
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