What you are seeing is mochi
A Japanese rise-based food
And him... is the person I'd like to introduce to you today
Yun̩ The Guy of the Dinosaurs
Florence... A city that certainly won't need a presentation of mine
I am Edoardo :)
And today I'm here to meet Yun̩
Yun̩ Hikosaka
Our date is in front of Pitti Palace
Long time no see (in Japanese)
How are you? Everything's fine
And so today are you gonna show me some drawing?
Yes, of course!
-Italian people exulting- (maybe there's a soccer match on tv)
After a degree in Sciences of Art
In Tama (Tokyo)
He moves for a little but intense period in Florence
Where he gets a diploma at Riaci Academy
I am struck by his sensibility of course
But most of all by his's creation's protagonists
Why do you draw dinosaurs?
Well... Sure it is a fundamental question
Very important but difficult to be answered
I've got two answers
A sentimental one, and a more logic one
Dinosaurs to me are symbols
Symbols of a great Past, who dominated this earth
From Perm to Cretaceous
Of course without destroying the Earth
A sentimental reason cause I want to draw dinosaurs
Since I was a kid, animals, most of all prehistorical ones
I always feel them near to me, nearer than human beings
As they where friends, neighbors, or part of family
That's why I draw them
I mean, to me is normal life
If dinosaurs
were nearby to me, it wouldn't be a big deal
As you are now
Someone says I just maintained a passion from childhood till this age
But this isn't true. I always felt a connection with animals
So, not only dinosaurs
For example big cats, an eagle or a crow who
Who eat mocha nearby me to me is normal, acceptable
This is it
By the way I still believe that...
Behind me, as a spirit, there's maybe some dinosaur or snake or something else
E: Do you mean an animal guide?
Yes yes, I don't know how to say in Italian Haigorei
[HAIGOREI: ancestral spirit who is supposed to stand by a living]
A spirit behind
A ghost behind...
An important thing is... to pray
Not just praying "the god"
Or praying something to be answered...
But this feeling is important!
To build a relationship between me and them
With respect
And most of all what you can see nomore
Because the origin of the Occidental culture
I can be found in the Roman and in the Greek ones
So...
To me is very simple linking these
these cultures
One of the dinosaurs and on of the human beings
Most of all Occidental ones
I like very much these Greek, Latin writers
I red sometimes Cicerone, and Aristotele as well
For example
the one on friendship or old age
by Cicerone
are great books
I like to read them but...
sure it gives to me some effects, some influence but...
it isn't my...
this thing (this passion) It has nothing to do with my Center
all around. Cause the Center...
it's something else
What about studying art in Florence?
It is difficult to answer, you know
I realized something
Living in Florence is a marvelous experience
But studying in Florence is something else!
Maybe (Florence) is to linked to that Renaissance, Mannerism... that ancient manners
Cause basically Florence is an Ancient city
E: So do you mean there's no enough liberty?
Liberty of thinking
I mean, sure who wants to study art in florence is bound to that Renaissance culture of '500-'600
or at most end of '800
By the way it still worked that academism
to tell the truth they were half artisans
not effectively artists
They put their opinion in paining, sure, but...
"oh via!"
It is too bound to that Christian religion
Do you know why I don't like Renaissance?
They sure developed technically and a way of thinking the liberty
I say, I don't like, sincerely I say I don't like this "one god" idea
who dominates on everything and who looks like human beings...
These three thing, I don't like them at all..!
But I respect it
There is a very good aspect about it, because
maybe thanks to Christianity
you still have this feeling of "praying"
and let's give a look to us, to Japanese people, almost everything it's been destroyed
Our religion is, anyway, an animist based type
But after WWII, or better after Meiji's revolution
everything changed
this feeling has not remained to us...
almost
E: When he's in Italy, Yun̩ is also an active and beloved member of the Archeosophic Association of Florence
Old man: Good evening!! Wait! Wait! E: I ask permission
Old man: Ciao Ciao Ciao
E: Good evening, I'm Edoardo Old man: I'm Gaetano, nice to meet you E: Very pleased
Old man: please come in E: Thank you!
Lady: And she couldn't wait to see you again as well, she didn't know you were back
Referring to the ancient Russian Byzantine technique
the principal activity of this Association is the studying of painting that has for subjects
the classic images and figures of the holy iconography of the Christian orthodoxy
When inspired, the strokes of Yun̩ flow on the paper without any second thoughts
In this way the pen becomes a sword
which is never unsheathed without reason
E: Would you like to describe this picture?
That one?
I made it as a New Year's postcard, for the sneak's year
As usual for New Year postcards, I put my cat in, on the right
In the center there's a sneak, actually a python
who brings cheese
just as the bible's one who takes the apple
and then fascinates Eve
And about the gryphon I put it cause it's a symbol of Jesus Christ
It is just a little symbolic drawing
That's why the gryphon takes a wine glass and a slice of bread
cause both are symbols, meat and blood of Jesus
Then on the table there are fishes, other symbols
And the snake, a python, who brings cheese
Cheese must be in!
E: and this cat?
This cat is mine!
I wouldn't like to give a symbolic meaning to my cat, my brother
E: Is there some author form whom you get inspired?
Well... Robert Cutras is very different from me but
in his paintings it can be felt a sort of religious feeling
a feeling of praying
Watching his paintings I almost feel like id I was inside a church
Or for example those Japanese ones, Jakucho, or Togyu Komura
A painter who lived a century, across Meiji period to the end of Showa
Very inspired by C̩zanne, and Occidental things
So a studious, specialized in the traditional Japanese painting
his paintings are very fascinating
not too decorative as many other Japanese painters
instead he's really about life
I like him lot, to death..!
Or, as a photographer Sebastịo Salgado
Originally he used shoot about people
Of workers, or difficult moment's scenes like war or other situations
Not so similar but maybe with an influence from Henri Cartier-Bresson
After a long time he changed subjects
Now he's shooting... animals..!
But usually the animal photographers
they just try to catch a scene to impress the audience
a little theatrical, scenes a bit factitious
He's in the ground, the naked ground
The animals are shot as people so...
not too respectful, not too theatrical, not too...
how do you say?
not too photographical
They seems portraits
but of animals
This to me is impressive
E: Would you like to expose more in Occident or in Japan?
More in Occident
About my drawings, Europeans understand them more than Japanese people
Japanese people...
Looking at my drawings
"Oh nice!" "Cute" and stop.
I don't think people of recent Japan will understand my drawings
E: Is there, in your opinion, some other artist who's got a value but is not understood by today's Japan?
Togyu, Jakuchu, these ancient painters...
I don't think Japanese people really understand them
Sure there are a lot of exhibitions and expositions
for example, this year (2016) is 300th anniversary of Jakuchu
but...
They say "300 years! 300 years! Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!" but...
they don't understand
They go to see the exhibition of Jakuchu not cause they truly like him
but because it's covered by a magazine, by the television
It's foolishness! Television said...
"Oh there's a 320 minutes waiting for Jakuchu's exhibition and it's came so many people!"
but
it says almost anything about his paintings!
They actually don't have reasons to go
They go to the exhibition not to enjoy it, but to say they went to the exhibition
In Japan by now, paintings became business
Just it
So if...
About Togyu maybe it is a different matter
His paintings were kept in Yamatane Museum
In conclusion, abut Jakuchu, before that collector, mr Price,
In Japan there was nothing (no interest)
And after this, suddenly
it appeared this passion about Jakuchu...
It 's really nonsense...
E: The dream you want to realize
The dream..?
Mh... difficult question...
I draw for pleasure, not to survive...
perhaps...
perhaps before dyeing I'd like to realize a bronze
it would be nice
E: What did you want to become when you were a child?
The paleontologist
Because maybe to build a relationship between me and them
that's a simpler way
also more direct
because fossils need to be felt
E: Then we had the same dream!
Really?
Interesting...
Yun̩ utilizes only natural lights
It let him entry in a world of analogies
So that by the delicacy of his lines
a lunar energy transpires
That sneak, rather that python, is an African python
At the origins of human being there were Africans
So, as type, I've chosen this python
The models of the reliefs are from the Mesopotamian ones
3000-3500 B.C.
Still Akkad period
As it's written in the bible
it was the snake to give origin to everything
E: Do you believe in God or by the way in a good-will-energy of the universe?
I'm Darwinist
Sure, Animist but I believe that Darwinism and Animism can cohabit together
About believing in this universe's will I must say "no"
At least now, after death I don't know
E: (do you believe in) the existence of a soul?
Yes I do
After death
I don't think you can maintain this perception
I don't think so
But something remains, maybe...
If it will remain something would be nice!
You don't meet people like Yun̩ everyday
and yet
With his being absorbed, rapt, temple and hostage
by the ancient spirits whom he evoked
He's is someway a classic artist
who moves
and who touches
No comments:
Post a Comment