ーPlease introduce yourself.

My name is Tomohiro Ogisu Kubota. Until now, I’ve been operating under the name Tomohiro Kubota, but now I’m starting to use Tomohiro Ogisu Kubota. Kubota is my father’s last name, and Ogisu is my mother’s last name, and I combined them to make my artist name. I guess most of the pieces I’ve done up to now can be called installations? Rather than thinking of new things to make, I try to figure out how I can divide things I already have, whether I should care for them or how I can master them, and I turn those very actions into the piece itself. To put it frankly, I remodel things, tidy them up, manage them…the kind of things you can’t escape doing, and connect them to the act of making art. This time, I’m doing a piece revolving around sorting and managing possessions.

ーWhat would you like viewers to look at in particular?

Usually, when it comes to how to view my work, I hope that people look at it from two different levels. At first, I would want them to look at it without knowing what it’s about and think about what their impressions are in that state. Then, on the second level, I want them to look at the piece a second time while thinking about its meaning, the concept, and its origins. That way, they’ll have a slightly different impression of it from the first time. That’s how I generally like viewers to look at my work. This piece is the same. It has a light box, and I’d like viewers to take some time to look at it and think about what it is, and consider ideas like where it comes from. I think that would be the best way.

ーPlease tell us how you came to make this piece, and the process behind it.

Around May of 2023, when I participated in the BankART residence in Yokohama, which is my hometown, I spent a lot of nights with my family. That gave me a lot of opportunities to talk to my grandfather, to hear about what’s bothering him and what he’s been thinking about lately. He has a bit of a collector’s spirit, and has a coin collection. Like commemorative coins, some made of gold. That collection has become impossible to organize, and it takes up a lot of space.

My family had started telling him to get rid of it since it was taking up so much room, and that was around the time I was selected for this Kyoto residence, so I thought maybe I could do something with it, make it into a work of art. BnA exhibits last about half a year, so I decided to have BnA take on the burden of my grandpa’s coin collection for half a year, to have them hold onto it for a while. I thought maybe that could be the concept. Using that as the reason, or maybe as an excuse, I built a case, thinking I’d make something to put the commemorative coins in to preserve them. That and the database used to organize and combine them all into one thing is what I decided to make for this project.

ーIs there something you want to convey with this piece?

Something to convey…hmm. Generally, making art is based on something really personal. However, I think a lot about how to connect those micro phenomena to macro ones, like things or incidents in society. Like how fairly private problems can be shared with other people, because it’s pretty common for them to not be personal but systematic or national. I think as an artist you have to keep making things, that you have a duty to do so, but in continuing to create there are going to be conflicts that arise, responsibilities that come with it, that sort of thing. You have to stop and pause and think about those things. I can’t really think about making art as positive or optimistic. I first think about what to do about the current state of things, and whether there isn’t something creative I could do with it. I don’t go into it innocently; I think about how I can capture what I have now, how I can recapture it, and how I can indirectly talk to the viewer about it through art.

ーPlease tell us anything special or novel about how you make art.

When I’m creating something, when it comes to inventing or thinking, I try my hardest not to create an objective. I think more of making something within a reasonable scope. I’ve been influenced by a lot of artists like Tino Sehgal, Charlotte Posenenske, and Sol LeWitt, artists who don’t place much importance on physical things or who abandon them altogether. Their works just seem to materialize, and I guess that probably that molding, that creative approach emerged for me and that’s how I make art now. So I’m always thinking about how I can take pieces that would appeal to museums and art markets, like huge murals at museums or paintings sold at a market, desirable pieces, and I think about how and to what extent I can get those pieces to be rejected, and how I can establish them after they’ve been rejected and what to do with them next. That’s why, just like in this piece, I take creative things, no matter what or how few, and escape from the methods and thinking of the art industry while still keeping their connection to the art world or the context in which they exist, while also being conscious of their background, and that’s how I create my own work of art. That’s probably the most peculiar or novel thing, I think.

ーHow was the Artist in Residence program?

This was my second time doing a residence, right after Yokohama BankART, but it was really fun. I don’t think a lot of people get the chance to live in a hotel for a month and just make art, and the rooms of the hotel themselves were decorated by artists, so that was pretty interesting. The room next door had been converted into an exhibition room and I could keep my work there and be right next door, so the process was really smooth, which was nice. Plus, BnA is located in a really good area, and getting around was easy. I came here from Tokyo but it seemed even easier to get to lots of places from here, so from a location standpoint, it was a really great spot. At the same time, four other groups of artists were staying in the hotel too, and the director, Mr. Tsutsui, was also there, so we got to chat as we worked on our pieces. I thought it was a lot of fun to brainstorm and work together like that. We stayed for one month, but before that I had been thinking about what to make, and when I arrived I started to shape a more detailed work. At first I didn’t really feel like the guest room was a place where I could work, so I used FabCafe Kyoto, which is a partner location that has all kinds of workshops. For this piece, I used my usual leather cutter and also, for the first time, an embroidery machine. I took some lessons on it and I thought I could incorporate it into my work, so there are several ways they influenced the final output from a technical standpoint. That was really cool. I’m not an artist who keeps a personal studio, so it felt a lot easier to make art here than it did at home, and I really felt like I was in a rich environment. I want to come back and visit some day. Thank you for this experience.

Kubotaoguiss Tomohiro
12 white inventories
Set of 12. Each: H455×W333×D133 mm
private coin collection, painted wood, embroidered fabric, metal fittings, lighting equipment, database of coin collection