MIKKABOZU. A Conversation with a Tokyo Artist
“Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers...”
In a city ruled by conformity and conventionality, the art of MIKKABOZU stands out like a nail that refuses to be hammered down. With a playful and childlike sensibility, MIKKABOZU expresses her inner world via whatever medium she finds inspiring at the moment. Jumping across paintings, sculptures, and videos with total abandonment.
GATA recently had the privilege to talk to the artist about the origins of her work and her relationship with the city of Tokyo.
SAMO: Could you tell us a little bit about your journey to this point? How did you start making art in Tokyo as MIKKABOZU?
MIKKABOZU: I started focusing on making art after I dropped out of school two years ago. I went to a fashion school but I didn’t wanna go full-on with my ideas and energy on projects that’ll only be acknowledged by teachers. I dropped out considering my time and my tuition fee.
SAMO: Could you tell us a little bit about your creative process? What is your starting point when you begin a project?
MIKKABOZU: Mikkabozu is a saying in Japanese for describing someone who gets bored fast, and I’m a Mikkabozu myself so it always depends on the mood. Multitasking works well for my short attention span so I usually create 2-3 pieces at once.
SAMO: What role does Tokyo play in your art? Do you think it's had a major influence in the work you make?
MIKKABOZU: Busy places make me want to speed up,
I guess those impacts can be observed in different indirect forms.
SAMO:There seems to be a child like playfulness to your art. It reminds me of this quote by Picasso, "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." Is this something you can relate to?
MIKKABOZU: Perhaps.. I never had a proper art-education
and I’d like to go on being naive to see what I can create from experimenting and playing with the materials around me.
SAMO: Are there any artists/works that inspired you growing up?
MIKKABOZU: As a child I used to enjoy watching cartoons with no dialogues like Mr. bean, pink panther, Tom & Jerry. I guess the exaggerated body movements were always my thing.
SAMO: What is next for MIKKABOZU? Do you have any projects lined up for the future?
MIKKABOZU: Not a fan of telling plans.
SAMO: Is Mikkabozu seen as a negative expression in Japanese society? And what do you think of the expression as a whole?
MIKKABOZU: It’s not appealing if that’s your impression from your team or company... Anything that involves teamwork isn’t gonna work well with a mikkabouzu. But as an individual, I think it’s healthy feeding your curiosity at your own pace.
SAMO: What is your opinion on the Tokyo art/creative scene as a whole? When I lived in London, I felt a kind of respect for tradition and a "right way of doing things" but when I came to Tokyo I experienced a sense of freedom, like I wasn't bound by the rules of the culture I grew up in.
MIKKABOZU: I still need to learn more about other countries and the scenes so I can’t really compare. But in Tokyo or at least the community where I am in, I feel like there are so many opportunities available and no one has to be a professional to express themselves.
And that makes it easy for anyone to take the first step.
SAMO: Are there any young artists/creatives working in Tokyo right now that you like?
MIKKABOZU: I like being around tokyovitamin. I don’t make music but I always admire how they find routes to express their music and art in different forms and also how they use them as a communication tool to go beyond Tokyo connecting to a larger community.
SAMO: Is there a message you want to put across with your art?
MIKKABOZU: None, still figuring them out.
SAMO: Recently you've been creating pieces using wire, was there a conscious reason towards using this medium or was it something more spontaneous?
MIKKABOZU: I just got bored of 2Ds so I started playing with wire. The medium may not be
too commercial, but I just want to try new forms of mixed media art.
