TAKORA KIMIYOSHI FUTORI
PEOPLEText: Yurie Hatano
This month’s cover is designed by TAKORA Kimiyoshi Futori, who is a visual creator and well-known to SHIFT for his collaboration with Chisato Shinya. He has offered his visuals to a picture book Andersen (Die Gerstalten Verlag, Germany). He has expanded his activity worldwide, joining ChilliChilly Artist Collection (Hong Kong) − Glass Series.
We had an interview with TAKORA Kimiyoshi Futori and he talked about his wok and recent activities.
ANDERSEN (Die Gerstalten Verlag, GERMANY) 2004
Can you please introduce youself?
Hi! My name is TAKORA Kimiyoshi Futori and I’m a visual creator.
I was born and grew up in a seaport, Kobe city. I went to graduate school at Kyoto City University of Art and graduated from the school. Growing up in such a mass-consumption society I’ve always wanted to put new breath into products that are a part of daily life. Since I came to Tokyo after my graduation, I’ve created pop visuals as a freelance artist. At the same time, I’ve tried to hold and join as many exhibitions as possible, no matter where, in Japan or abroad. Being a visual creator has given me opportunities to work not only in Japan, but also in other Asian areas and Europe. With SHIFT, I have presented some works in Soso Cafe n Sapporo.
I usually work in a wide range of fields from Comme des Garcons Homme to Chinese high culture magazine VISION. People like my work because a motif is repeated in each work with unique, organic and cartoony elements, which are generated from Asiatic cultural background. My motto is, “catchy is everything.”
Can you tell us about your recent activities?
My recent work is visual offerings to a picture book named Andersen (Die Gerstalten Verlag/Germany), to IFVA (Hong Kong Art Center/Hong Kong) for a T-shirt, to a campaign poster for 2005 mother’s day and father’s day at PARCO, and the participation in ChilliChilly Artist Collection (Hong Kong) − Glass Series.
Sony VAIO 5 Anniversary Book (Allrightsreseved, Hong Kong) 2005
You have an eclectic range of activities from working with clients to holding exhibitions. Is there any difference among each activity?
I don’t think there is a difference. I always have the same level of motivation and enthusiasm every time I create visuals. In client works, money is brought in between clients and me so I also have to satisfy the client’s requirements. But I don’t care about that because most of the situations of my work are like that. There is never 100% freedom in my work. I think, if 100% freedom was given to me, I wouldn’t want to create anything in such a situation. In my current situation, I still have many things I have to work on, but even in this situation I want to do my best to create things that have as much value as possible and are meaningful to somebody. In order for this to be realized, I want to talk about it.
Don’t Mind Exhibition (SOSO Cafe, Sapporo) 2003
Do you think something changed in your work and activity after Don’t Mind Exhibition which was held for a month and also held in Soso Cafe in the summer of 2003?
I became to live desperately. Meanwhile, I just let my life in Tokyo go as time past, but now life seems to be more real and my motivation and passion are stimulated by friends and people I meet. The biggest factor of this change is that I’ve been connected with my current life and the people throughout the world. I think it’s very exciting to have a chance to talk with creators who can share a great passion with me such as SK Lam and Man Chung Lee in Hong Kong, Kam Tang in England, and Saiman Chow in America. Since I got into my thirties, I have bigger passion toward creating visuals. I sort of became to feel like doing whatever is for the world around us with as much honesty as I can put on it.
SHIFT Cover (grAphic tAkorA + Chisato Shinya) 2004
Can you tell us about Peeping Navi of DOTMOV in 2004 and the collaboration with Chisato Shinya?
It happened in this way: Chisato thought I was very interesting and liked me a lot, then he invited me to his event. I don’t know why he thought of me like that. Anyways, he really liked me.
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