Paradox, Contradiction, and Enigma: Nana Kono interviews Tomoko Sawada
By Nana Kono
Tomoko Sawada, won the 29th Kimura Ihei Memorial Photography Award. For nearly thirty years, this prize has been a gateway to success for young photographers in Japan. On the day of the prize-giving ceremony in Tokyo, I found Sawada surprised and flattered by the noteworthy recognition. As it turned out, her awe stemmed from the fact that she never even clicked a shutter in the making process of making her works. Known as an artist, she is not a photographer in its ordinary sense. Instead, she involves photographic agendas in her art to express what she wants and needs in her images. Her theme is simple, fundamental and strong. Her images explore the fundamental questions of identity which are critical to reaching out to her viewers.
Kono: Your main gallery, The Third Gallery Aya is located in Osaka, but I heard you are from Kobe, originally. How do you think about your hometown?
Tomoko: How? Hmmm, it is the town where I was born and grew up… I have my family and lots of friends there. I am happy with them. It is very important for me to be happy, relaxed and healthy. I work in Kobe as an artist, because it is natural for me. There is no need to go anywhere else. I just went to a photo booth near my home when I was working on ID400. I could shoot at a grocery store in front of my house to make one of the images of "Costume". The people who run the store are my friends and are kind enough to offer me the place. If living in another town was as convenient, I would move, but it would be tough, because I have a huge cargo and stuff…
K: Could you tell me how you came across Ms. Aya, the gallery owner? I believe it was a wonderful encounter for people enjoying your art.
T: When I was a student, she was a guest lecturer in my art school. I was lucky to find "ID400" at its very early stage. It was so exciting. Mr. Lizawa, the famous photographic critic, liked it, too, and said if I could make it 1000, he would publish it. I answered, "Oh, alright. I will try!" Finally, I finished it at 400, not 1000. It was my BA thesis.
Today I needed to make many, many pictures. Otherwise, people would not understand my idea.
K: You have continued to examine images of yourself and your project has now won the Kimura Ihei Memorial Photography Award for the series of "Costume" and "cover". Congratulations.
T: Thank you so much.
K: I found one of the image from "Costume", OKAMI, in New York last year.
T: Thank you. I’ve shown my works in New York. I might have another show there this fall, but I’m afraid I am too busy. I have no idea what’s going to happen.
K: I hope you will have an exhibition there. To create the images of both " Costume " and "Cover", you made yourself up and chose clothes before shooting. I imagine the process is exciting.
T: No, it is not so exciting for me, rather, while I get made up, I concentrate on getting a certain effect that I have in my mind. First of all, I have a picture in my brain and what is essential for me is to express it.
K: You need to do so to show people your works.
T: And especially for me, I need the works. I want to make what is in my mind a real thing. I guess that is why I am an artist.
K: When did you first feel that you might like to be an artist?
T: When I was in the last grade of junior high, Mr.
Noboru Tsubaki (who now show our works in New Zealand) taught our art class. I really enjoyed his class. I was so interested and I felt I could do it. In the art class, we watched art videos, and made our reactions as collages, or we had sketchpads to fill in with various things like memos, scraps and whatever we were interested in. I think I was lucky. My junior high and high school was kind of special. I already knew many of the art videos adopted in art school, because I had watched them in junior high. Unconsciously, I learned the latest information from the art world. I always had mentors in my life. Mr.Tsubaki’s class was one of my motivations for becoming an artist.
When I needed to decide my course after graduating from high school, I thought it would be great if I could be an artist, and if not, I wanted to do something on art. So I entered an art school.
K: And you started to shoot yourself as an assignment for art school, right?
T: Sure, and I noticed that it was the way of my art.
K: What is your image source? How can you arrange yourself in such a wide variety of ways?
T: The images spring from somewhere in my mind. They are just like dancing and hopping. When I was young, I loved to read magazines. I suppose they are my sources, partly.
K: Following inspiration, you change your looks hundreds of times in your works. Do you think all of them are still yourself?
T: Yes, I do. All of them are me. I don’t try to be someone else. My problem is a relation of my internal and external character. I cannot help sticking to the idea from my childhood. I thought the internal could be seen as the surface of the person before. Now I am thinking that I cannot say it from one side. Maybe the external can affect the person’s mind. Both ways are possible.
K: I feel the physical character conditions the person’s mind.
T: Yes, we can say so. There are two directions. I am wandering somewhere between the two poles. I work in the conflict. That is my energy to continue my project.
