Tokyo
Alice paints intensely colored, slightly crazy, sexy, powerful women
inspired by fairy tales, superheroes and dream life. The image on
the cover of this issue, “Bloom,” is typical: a beautiful
women holds a branch above her head (as a weapon?) and small woodland
animals are her friends. Tokyo Alice will be in Michigan for the
opening of the G.I.A.N.T. show at gallery 555 in Detroit this month.
See calendar, page 4-5, for more information.
Ann Arbor Paper: Why do you call yourself Tokyo Alice?
Tokyo Alice—“Alice” means a punk chipmunk. A Tokyo
punk chipmunk.
“A” is for “anarchy,” and “ li+ce
“ means “chipmunk” by Japanese pronunciation.
(Incidentally, I had a chipmunk when I was a child.) Also, I have
dressed up as Alice from Alice in Wonderland for some parties. And,
I have been living in Tokyo for about 15 years.
A2P: Is the woman in your work you?
TA: Yes or no. Usually . . . it’s me. But sometimes it’s
my friend close to me, or sometimes my ideal dream woman.
Each character is loaded with deep meaning and sometimes has strong
will. For example, “ I do not know whether I am an angel or
devil but I want to become an angel for a boyfriend.” When
I thought that, then I made an angel character. I felt I became
the angel while I was making that.
Or, once I thought, “It will be become possible, if it wishes
strongly”—when I felt that, I made the fortunate goddess
to express that feeling.
A2P: How do you invent your characters?
TA: Fragments of memories in my mind, also TV programs and animation
I watched and the books I read, fairy tales, for instance, when
I was a child. It has all accumulated.
Also, many animals were kept in my house when I was a child and
they were friends of mine. So I like animals. I made characters
like an animal girl or an insect girl (personification) sometimes.
They express a feeling (little feminism) and they are invented.
A2P: What inspires you?
TA: Daily life, anywhere, anytime . . .
Things that seem pretty or cool or romantic or lovely, visible things
and invisible things. Sometimes I’m inspired by people around
me, friends, my boyfriend, or another relationship. Love, a feeling,
a situation can make me react strongly . . new experiences, travel,
first-time things. I’m inspired when I dream. When I’m
alone in my room, various fancies are carried out. I dream night
and day.
Anyway, I am emotional person. I am expressing my feeling or my
dream in my art.
Originality and individuality are very important for creating, I
think. I’m always thinking that I want to do something that
other people are not doing. I want to break down preconceived ideas
by fusing Western and Eastern culture and by bringing the past and
the new things through my perception. I like to fuse different things
to express my views. And I can say that is not only in my work,
I want to be stay a cool style myself, in my life. I want to take
both old traditional things and modern things in my own work freely
and express a new style by mixing them.
A2P: Who are your heroes?
TA: I have lot of heroes. Walt Disney. I want to make a original
world of my own. Disneyland is great. It seems perfect. Courtney
Love and Madonna, because strongly beautiful is my ideal woman.
I want to be such a woman. Also, some other heroes are [writer and
artist] Francesca Lia Block, and [former prime minister of Japan]
Kakuei Tanaka.
A2P: How did you meet up with these Michigan artists? What’s
the connection?
TA: I made the poster for a Japanese band for a U.S. tour. A person
who promoted it in Chicago invited me to the show. I met Detroit
artist Chris Sandon there and we became friends. He organized my
solo exhibition in Ann Arbor in the last year. I stayed two weeks
and I had very good time “hangin’ with my homies”
in Ann Arbor and Detroit.
A2P:
Where will you be in ten years?
TA: I hope I will be in the USA! a2p
See the work of Tokyo Alice along with many other artists in the
G.I.A.N.T. show at Gallery 555 June 4 - 16. Opening June 4. 4884
Grand River, Detroit. For more details, see What's Going On. |
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