As it sometimes happens, someone has an idea you could not think of yourself. The Japanese artist Soya Asae was inspired to use the building material MagnetPaint as part of her exhibition: SOYA ASAE EXHIBITION "sora iro"（color of the air）.
We thought it was nice not just to promote our product, but to know of her inspiration and her findings of using our product is such a way. This is why we asked for an interview. Please read it here:
MagPaint: Can you please introduce yourself?
Asae Soya: I am an artist working in interdisciplinary fields: painting, installation and video installation.
In 2006, I completed my doctoral program in Painting at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. Among many awards I have received are the 6th SHELL ART AWARD (Grand Prize, 2001), Vision of Contemporary Art 2002 (VOCA Grand Prize, 2002), Yokohama Culture Award (Culture and Art Incentive Award, 2013), and Kanagawa Cultural Award (Future Prize, 2013). For the whole year of 2014, I will be living and working in New York City through the fellowship from the Japanese government’s Overseas Study Program for Artists.
My recent solo exhibitions include 'sora iro' (color of the air), 2013, Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki; Swim, 2011, Obuse Museum, Nagano; Float (2011) and Prism (2007), Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo; and Ringing, 2010, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo. Among the many group exhibitions I have participated in are shows at Fuchu Art Museum, Art Tower Mito, Sezon Museum of Modern Art, PYO Gallery (Beijing), and Takamatsu City Museum of Art.
My major commissioned public works are air, BREEZE BREEZE, Sankei Building Co., Ltd., Osaka; and Ringing, Totsuka Kumin Cultural Center, Yokohama.
My works are in the public collections of Art Tower Mito, Tokyo Station Gallery, Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co., Ltd., Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Government of Brunei Darussalam, and in many other art museums.
My works that are filled with vibrant colors and light possess a subtle beauty, dynamic sensitivity, and the sense of “today,” which can awaken not only the viewers’ visual senses but also their physical sensations.
In 2013, my collection of works Asae Soya: 'sora iro' (color of the sky) was published by Seigensha Art Publishing. Website: www.mornning-picture.com
MagPaint: How did you develop your ‘signature’ style, or how did it evolve?
Soya Asae: Rather than focusing on finding my own style of work, I eliminate my “self” to the maximum limit. I’m always conscious of creating every work with the most suitable method for the ideas that come to me. This, at times, results in creating works with methods and styles that I had never used before. But regardless of the method, as long as my works result from the visualizing of my ideas in their most ideal forms, I’m certain that features unique to me are spontaneously revealed. As I continued to show my works in exhibitions and competitions based on that notion, my range of activities expanded and the audience widened.
MagPaint: What is your motivation, and what are your thoughts on the type of art you make?
Soya Asae: Using light and colors, I want to visualize “physical sensations” and “perceptions” themselves. For example, in my installation work Ringing, for which I utilized your company’s MagnetPaint, I visualized my consistent perception of colors. That is, I produced visions of colors that created sounds in my mind as they amplified like ripples.
MagPaint: the works I have seen are making extensive use of perspective and perspective distortion. Is this effect totally calculated, mere calculated or a planned coincidence?
Soya Asae: My aim is to consciously manifest a sensation that can cause the confusion of perspectives and the distortion of a real space. The visual effects in my works derive from visualizing my focus on the non-ordinary within the ordinary. That is, just by shifting one’s perspective, ordinary sights can be perceived as being new or strange, turning them into something that is non-ordinary.
MagPaint: What are you hoping for: how should it interact with people, what should people experience?
Soya Asae: Art is a visual form, but even if my work is in the form of a painting I still want the viewers to experience being wrapped within the work, and feel that their entire bodies have entered into the world of that work. This is aimed at creating works that can awaken our own physical sensations that we tend to forgot as we live in today’s information-overloaded world.
MagPaint: What are your artistic goals for the short term, and the long term?
Soya Asae: I would very much like to get to know Dutch people through art, and to hold my exhibition in the Netherlands, which is the land of art, as well as a country I deeply admire.
In the long term, I wish to work with everything I am capable of. I want to continue opening new doors to artistic possibilities, through a challenging array of ideas with a more open mind than I have now. I’m certain that this can take me to a freer and greater place for my art.
MagPaint:: How did you come in contact with the product MagnetPaint? Soya: A photo of MagnetPaint that I once saw stuck in my mind, which led me to search about it on the Net.
MagPaint: Why were you interested/triggered?
Soya Asae: Most installations have to be scrapped after they are exhibited. But I came up with the idea of using magnetic sheets, while giving thought to the different ways I could create an installation with easily detachable components that could be reutilized over and over again. So my initial idea was to produce many pieces with magnetic sheets and to reuse them. I also thought that if magnetic sheets could be used on walls, then I could transform my installation during the exhibition period. But since a magnet does not stick on a normal wall, I thought about ways to change the wall space. That was when I discovered MagnetPaint. I was intrigued by its magical effects. That is, MagnetPaint is a paint, so it’s seamless, and a magnet sticks to it even though one can’t tell that the wall has been painted with MagnetPaint.
MagPaint: How did this function contribute to the artwork?
Soya Asae: MagnetPaint allowed me to create a flexible type of installation, such as by transforming the site during the exhibition period. This is an impressive and remarkable feature, since most installations are inflexible once they have been installed. In addition, the act of attaching and detaching magnetic pieces can amuse everyone. That means, my work that employs magnetic pieces can evolve to an interactive type of work in which viewers can participate.
The combination of MagnetPaint and magnetic sheets allows me to create installations anywhere, so I definitely want to continue utilizing it in a variety of venues.
MagPaint: Did you do tests beforehand?
Soya Asae: I applied layers of MagnetPaint and normal paint on a board, so that I could ascertain the thickness of MagnetPaint and the magnetic force of magnet sheets.
MagPaint: What is your conclusion on how it worked out? / did it do what you had hoped for?
Soya Asae: MagnetPaint is incredible! I can create a beautiful, seamless wall surface. The wall becomes magnetic, without giving away that feature to the viewer. This can create magical effects in my works. And because MagnetPaint has a strong magnetic force, I was able to smoothly replace the pieces on the walls before the viewers’ eyes.
MagPaint: Do you see other opportunities to use MagnetPaint again, or was this ‘one time only’?
Soya Asae: I would definitely like to use MagnetPaint again and create installations in various venues. MagnetPaint has a great potential to expand the scope of installation art.
MagPaint thanks Ms. Asae for this interview
(Ms. Asae's answers were translated from Japanese into English by Taeko Nanpei)
To find out more about Ms. Asae's work please visit her website at www.morning-picture.com.
