Interview

May 17

Nishiko

Nishiko began his artistic career in earnest in February of 2019.

His style is digital art done with a drawing tablet, originating from ukiyo-e and pop art, and so he only uses his fingers.

He uses a combination of inkjet and hand paint to create artworks. By overlaying the question of modern materialism on the question of art as a commerce, Nikisho creates ‘ESCAPE’, which is a bridge between the denial of the old era and the new era.

In addition to exhibiting paintings, Nikisho also creates art graphics for musicians. He is based in Japan, but his true identity has not been revealed. He considers it important that his paintings exist in the electronic sea, prior to the hidden body.

What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?

“I studied sociology and philosophy at university, and around that time I met a family with a child who had committed suicide, which made me question why there’s a world where people take their own lives. I entered the advertising industry and wondered if I could improve society by selling something creative. But I came to see that the vast domination and exploitation by money encompassed our creativity. It seemed to me that this is the exact opposite of what we need to do to solve the problem of suicide in Japan.
In Tokyo, there were queues of people waiting in line at the psychiatrist’s office, and the main treatment was medication. I understood, to the point of disgust, that it is the nature of Japan to be a parasite in the city, taking powerful drugs and putting on the persona of a ‘sensible’ person. Of course, it broke my heart. The only thing that remained for me was a fragment of my memories from childhood: drawing. Then I saw the light. It was not an exaggeration, but light. For the first time, I was able to define who I am. I understood that each moment I painted, I was alive and ignited. With no artistic training, I wonder if painting what I find most beautiful is a random sequence of imaginary numbers, or if it expresses a deep unconscious part of me. My artistic life is a kind of experiment.”

What does your work aim to say? Does it comment on any current social or political issues?

“Modern Japanese society today is, in my opinion, a zombie of the olden times. This one-way society, in which all standards of value are converted into monetary values, like Lacan's Kleinian vase, is long dead. However, its phantoms and remnants are still wandering in the wilderness, hiding the metabolic functions of the new age. I feel it is my mission to give it a funeral. To make this society aware of the end of the consumer society that vaporwave advocated, and to let it die, which will lead to a new life.
No matter how much we try to destroy it, we end up being taken in by the system. This is because any large organization or anything of value will always have authority. So what can be done to eliminate it? The only way is for people to escape from the system. Stop. The action may have been bullied with words like ‘coward’, ‘fool’, and so on, but it is the noise of the cult of mass feeling that must be ignored, and at the same time, it must be ‘affirmed’ to cease. Those who flee and quit the various social systems of today will see the prairie of a new age. And beyond that, we may be on the other side of the river, where even the Internet will be a blank slate.”

“I can’t help but be attracted to vaporwave, which is dying while continuing to grieve in between the two. That’s why I don’t want to copy its nuances, just the graphic form that came from that culture. That is what I put into my paintings.”

Which current art world trends are you following?

“Until now, there has been a trend in which a work that a certain critic said was great took the high road, was marketed, promoted, and became authoritative. But today, it seems that a difference is emerging. There are those who simply want to continue painting, those who want to leave their own world behind without being seen, and those who want to capture their dreams through painting as before. Authority and one-sided values are rapidly falling away. We have entered an era in which art becomes art if the creator defines it as such. People are no longer passively given information by someone else. They select it for themselves and actively incorporate it into their own thinking. It is no longer easy to create authority externally.
I believe that valuing art based solely on monetary judgments is outdated. If there is something that satisfies and inspires the soul, then that thing is art. But at the same time, there will be an active movement to create new monetary values, such as NFT. However, this is only one value. In general, the number of works that exist only for the sake of the artist's life will decrease more and more, toward a world where works of art exist randomly for the soul of the person.”

Do you plan your work in advance, or is it improvisation?

“No, I don't plan. But I am unconsciously accumulating them. I want to paint beautiful people, wonderful experiences, terrible times, information I have perceived so far. This is not limited to graphics such as paintings, but includes music heard, food eaten, sleep, sex, things perceived through body language, in front of a blank interface, muscles driven by the nervous system driven by emotions. The work is drawn from fragmented memory, vague anxiety, and a frenzied desire to escape.”

What process, materials and techniques do you use to create your artwork?

“The first premise is that the basics begin with experiencing things. Talking with people, eating, seeing, touching, etc. When I ruminate on the various emotions generated from these experiences, I always see a great darkness. As light is created, darkness is created, and I’m enveloped by an inextricably linked anxiety. This sweet despair gives birth to a frenzy of painting. I always carry a notebook for drafts, but create using only my iPhone and fingers. The lines are not predetermined. If I find a line I don’t like, I immediately redraw it. Sometimes hundreds of re-drawings are made for a single line. Thus, the framework is created.
After that, I paint colors. I like the electronic emptiness of color. Rather than carefully layering colors, I put in one thorough color and fill it in. Then, feeling uneasy about these colors, I add movement to the unusual bulges, refracted lines, and seething blacks and whites. I try to encompass them all and achieve perfect balance. The disparate pictures that are created are trying to appear in front of the time that I perceive. I give them a certain narrative and create order. This process is repeated, and a picture is born.
When I move my images from digital to physical, I burn them onto a canvas. The jets of ink emitted from the printer transform my drawing into something even more inorganic. The inorganic-ization that is so thorough in my mind takes on an organic quality. I believe that the new approach that emerges in this process will bring about a Hegelian cessation. The outline is overwritten with a brush and permanent marker on the finished print. Through this ritual, my inorganic printed matter becomes a definitive painting.

“It is a concept born of us individual human beings at the same time, that the electronic world is nihilistic. This vast ‘fiction’ is now writhing around, trying to eclipse reality. But while we feel uneasy about it, we are clearly human. If the eternal return will occur, it will be a joy. For we are the cause that is transformed by the negativity of self. It is in this time of uncertainty that we become human. I want to create a society that can truly affirm the beauty of living with contradictions.”

What does your art mean to you?

“Denial. It is assumed to be a blessing.”

What’s your favorite artwork and why?

“I like scenery I have never seen before; a world outside of what I can imagine. The artworks that had such an impact on me were Francis Bacon’s paintings, and the vast amount of internet content and accompanying vaporwave. I am not sure what to make of it, but it is a world that is outside of my imagination.
I will never forget the first time I saw Bacon’s painting. The other works were like, ‘Please look at me!’ but this one painting was unusually dark. It seemed to melt contentedly into a corner of the room with no lights, as if it wanted no one to get involved. Sweat broke out on my back just from looking at the picture for the first time. From that point on, I looked at Bacon's work every day like an addict. I could relate to his anxieties to the point of intense pain.”