Please enjoy our interview with Mitsuru Koga from September 2020 in anticipation of his upcoming exhibition at Tortoise General Store, the artist's long-awaited return following a six-year hiatus.
The interview is also available in Japanese here.
All Around You
Mitsuru Koga Exhibition
Exhibition Period
July 27 - August 11, 2024
Tue - Sat: 1 - 6 pm
Sun: 12 - 5 pm
E: You're an artist and the father of two young children. How are you and your family during this strange time? Has your daily life changed since Covid?
M: My atelier is at home and I work alone, so initially I didn't think things would particularly change. But in reality, my children's school closed and my wife started to work from home, so the whole family now spends their days at home, and it's hard to be alone.
Because we live near the sea, I'll choose a time and place where there are no people, and sometimes I play with my children in the sea and it helps change my mood.
Schools are reopening in Japan now, and we're gradually regaining the same sort of productive time we had before as a family.
E: What made you want to first create flatworks and flatboxes? What is your thought process when you're making a piece or collecting ideas for a piece? Can you describe the physical process of making a box to us?
E: Has this period of Covid made it easier or harder to create new works? Do you feel more creative at this time or influence by these world events?
M: Life and production are connected, and both are important, so I'm still in the middle of trial and error. There is still more to learn *laughs*.
You can see things with your eyes, but I felt once again that the air, the signs, and the feel of touching them are important.
Now, while being careful about my own safety and others, I am consciously trying to feel what is there.
E: Your work often makes us, the viewer, feel a bit of wonder, but also a sense of surprise because what we first see with our eyes is not always what's in front of us. What was your inspiration behind creating wire trees from electrical cords? What was your inspiration behind your atelier paint brush sculpture?
M: Everything starts with observing what is in our daily lives. You may often think of natural objects and artificial objects separately, but I feel that they are connected somewhere, and I want to find something in common and make it into a work...
In each work, I photograph the trees I find in familiar places and make a tree following their natural shape.
E: Your work also often shows us the interesting relationship between humans and nature, like in your sea-stone vases or driftwood dinosaur. You bring nature closer to us with these works, but also show human influence on nature. How do you feel about nature and people, and how does nature influence your creativity and work?
M: I always want to be humble with nature. At the same time, I also want to value the meaning of my existence as a human being.
When I go to pick up a stone, the stone has no words, but it gives me a lot of awareness.
When Covid became a part of our lives, I would go to pick up a stone and think to myself how the stone was completely unaware of the world's current situation and that it had been there existing on its own for a long time.
Given what is happening in the world, I am relieved to be able to connect with something that exists in a different flow of time and space.
E: What are you most excited to do after Covid is over? Is there something you miss doing that you're happy to start again?
M: I can't think of anything because I'm the type of person that can't imagine the future so much. I want to be able to enjoy what I can do now as much as possible, not what I can't do.
With that said, I do want to see people again and laugh out loudly, so I hope that we do return to normal someday!
