The guitarist's fingers, rendered in vivid colors, seem ready to move at any moment.
Mixed-Gt.-》2024(©MITSUKI NAKA)
Nakamitsukipositions music as the starting point of communication and depicts instruments and performers.
This work was selected for 100 10 2023/2024.
9s Gallery will present "UPDRAFT" Rising Artists from 10010 2023/24, agroup exhibition by Nakamitsuki and five other up-and-coming artists who attracted attention at 10010, from May 18 (Sat) to June 1 (Sun), 2024. ) to June 1 (Sat), 2024.
In this article, we will publish an interview with Nakamitsuki, in which he talks about his encounter with art and his concept.
Born in Hyogo Prefecture in 1997, Nakamitsuki graduated from Kyoto University of Education in 2020 with a major in art.
In 2023, he won the Excellent Prize at TOKYO MIDTOWN AWARD 2023.
Considering the impulsiveness that arises from the body and contemporary visual expression, he draws on a virtual canvas with the most popular electronic terminal iPhone and applications based on the huge amount of music data and recordings obtained from the contemporary music scene and distribution subscription services, and uses output and acrylic paints based on the preliminary sketches. The artist uses a painting technique based on the preliminary sketches.
Encounter with Art in the Battle Against Disease
-First of all, please tell us how you started your career as an artist and what was the background of your career.
My first encounter with art was in my early teens, when I was paralyzed due to an illness, and I started drawing a picture diary with one hand.
Originally, I was the type of person who liked to be active and physically active, taking jazz dance and theater lessons.
However, I was hospitalized and was unable to move my body freely.
The longer I was in the hospital, the less opportunities I had to interact with people, and the situation where I had to be assisted by someone to survive was also difficult, so I fell into distrust of people and led a depressed life.
In such a situation, I wanted to leave a proof of my life, so Istarted todraw pictures with my iPhone.
So, for me, drawing with my fingers on a virtual canvas on a digital device is a more native method than drawing with a brush on paper. Even today, I still draw preliminary sketches on my digital devices.
-While you first started painting on your iPhone, what prompted you to start working in acrylics and oils as you do today?
After I started painting, I was showing my digital works on social networking sites for a while.
Eventually, I recovered and became physically active, and I started trying canvas works when I decided to begin my artist activities in earnest at the time I entered university.
Digital works are good for capturing the moment of the moment, butI thinkanalog works have the charm of layering brushstrokes and depositing physical movement.
I have been experimenting with various analog techniques, initially working with silkscreen, but in the past few years I have mainly used acrylic paints and mediums.
Recently, he has also begun to use oil paints as a more permanent painting medium.
-You are not limited to painting, but also work in video and installation.
The goal of my work is not so much the creation of the work itself, but rather the interaction with the viewer through the work. Therefore, I do not stick to one style.
Perhaps this attitude of challenging various styles of expression is something I developed at the University of Education.
At an educational university, classmates come from different majors, such as Japanese and mathematics, and there is a wide variety of lectures.
I feel that I gained my current style because I had to research and grasp information according to my own interests.
Music: Communication before words were born
-What is the underlying theme of your work?
To sum it up in one word: communication.
During my teenage years in hospital, I always had a complex of not having had the opportunity to communicate, so I naturally began to think about communication a lot.
After entering university, I did research on the theme that music is the basis of communication between humans, based on my background in education and anthropology.
Even before the development of writing and language, music was a part of human culture.
Therefore, I thought that by using music as a motif, I could get closer to the origin of communication. I thought so, andbegan tocreate paintings based on performances at live houses.
Furthermore, the fact that I became a Corona disaster just as I was graduating from college was another reason why I chose communication as my main theme.
Though as an individual I felt physical disability and lack of communication as a teenager, in 2020 it became a shared problem for society as a whole.
In both cases, the commonality is that digital technology plays an important role in compensating for the lack of physical communication.
For example, in my case, this would be production on iPads, presentations on social networking sites, and online conferencing tools during the Corona Disaster.
From there, I became interested in the changes in communication styles and people's behavior brought about by technology.
Production view (©MITSUKI NAKA)
My own production also underwent major changes as a result of the Corona Disaster.
Originally, I used to paint while watching and listening to performances at live houses, but the Corona Disaster forced me to switch to listening only to the sound sources.
Seeing the performers and listening to the live sound is a completely different experience from listening to the sound source alone, and in terms of communication, I think the latter is a state in which something is lost more than the former.
On the other hand, there was also the aspect that, since the input was purely audio information, as I used my imagination to supplement the performer's image, my own imagination took up an increasing percentage of the production.
I believe this is why I wanted to use paint to preserve my physicality on the canvas.
Now that I also hold live shows, the genres I use as motifs have expanded to include not only jazz, which I originally listened to a lot, but also classical music, rock, and so on.
People who have seen me painting music for a long time often ask me to come to their shows, and I feel that this is another way in which communication through my artwork has expanded my circle.
Expanding one's possibilities with digital technology
Searching for Survival 2023 (©MITSUKI NAKA)
-Please tell us about the works you will be showing in the group exhibition in May.
100 people10 I plan to exhibit a two-dimensional work focusing on the movements of people playing music, in the same series as "Mixed-Gt.-" which was exhibited in 2023/2024.
The work is focused on matiere, and is a combination of analog and machine, with ink output on a base made with a medium agent, once the paint is placed on the surface, and once again ink output is applied to .......
I chose this method because I wanted to incorporate the ink shifts and errors that occur in machine printing into my work, as they are accidental and an expression that would never come from within me.
Using digital technology, whether it is a machine or an iPhone, is similar to the feeling of extending the body for me. It is a way to incorporate new expression and possibilities that I could not do on my own.
TOKYO MIDTOWN AWARD 2023 Excellence Award winning work "Typed Outline" 2023(©MITSUKI NAKA)
-Lastly, what is your vision for your future activities?
I would like to continue to explore new methods of expression, not only painting but also video and installation, in order to create works that can trigger deeper communication between viewers.
In particular, I have a strong interest in how people's daily behavior has changed after Corona, and I would like to deepen the theme of the installation work "Typing Contour Lines," which was created last year and won the TOKYO MIDTOWN AWARD.
Outline of the group exhibition
《"UPDRAFT" Rising Artist from 100 10 2023/24
Dates: 2024/5/18 (Sat) to 2024/6/1 (Sat)
Opening hours: 12:00 - 19:00
Opening party (invitation only):5/17(Fri.) 18:00-20:00
Closed: Sunday and Monday
Venue: 9s Gallery by TRiCERA
The Wall 3F, 4-2-4 Nishiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0031
Access: Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line Roppongi station 10 min. walk, Hiroo station 10 min. walk
10 minutes walk from Nogizaka station on Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line
Contact: 03-5422-8370
