Art_icle

“Seems solvable-yet-unsolvable quizzes for art appreciators.”

It was during his university preparatory school years that Nakamura saw the events of September 11. Seeing people falling like objects from buildings distorted his own image of “people”, and it was an event which forced him to strongly question the existence of human beings as material things. After quitting university, he travelled to Berlin for the second time - the first time was during high school after being selected for an international exchange foundation’s short term exchange program. He spent his time in Berlin at a studio boasting working artists from a diverse range of countries. Immersed in creating artworks and participating in discussions, he played with themes strongly influenced by the events of September 11. Developing these themes further, he sought to redefine the borders of the “living” and “non-living” within himself. He also participated in Kathatina Grosse’s lecture dealing with “Abstract, reality and virtual reality” at Berlin Weissensee Art Academy, College of Design and with support from local business operated an alternative space, taking on various projects outside of the art world. His quintessential series “Paradox” was drawn a little before returning to Japan from Germany. Strongly identifying with German society’s embrace of the violent character of nature and the independence of the liberated women, he began work on this piece. Whilst making use of opposing binaries such as nature and the artificial, women and man, what was originally a scene of natural abundance slowly began to become, just like his latest award winning work, a wasteland-like piece of land. “My motifs and themes had up until then been born out of September 11”. But since the ”Paradox” series, l have been influenced by the society and environment l myself live in. From”Paradox” to my more recent works l attempted to simply make what l had been thinking and trying to understand into pictures, but in the future, l would like to create paintings with meaning and forms which can’t be easily understood. Representing my own imaginary world into a seemingly solvable-yet-unsolvable quiz - like image for the viewer,” is how Nakamura describes his future projects.

(Interview by art_icle, Six month issue)

Download >> Inteview @ Arti_cle Vol.41 June 2011