The Sculpture Of Nobuko Tsuchiya

London-Based Japanese Artist Discusses Her Work And Practice

Aug 20, 2008

Nobuko Tsuchiya is an up-and-coming London artist. Here she explains the fascinating process behind her art and some of the key works that she has developed thus far

PB: It's almost as if you are attempting to create animals, or at least systems that relate to the biological, as with Oh, where the object simultaneously has form but also has an aspect of the formless with its on "circulatory system". You do this by often using what are in fact elements of the domestic in place of the more obvious and representative. These forms appear to function both as internal and external, or perhaps inversions, they express an intimacy and a "private" world?

NT: At the time I made Oh, my studio was about forty-five degrees, very hot, and the shape of Oh was already in place. And I actually began to feel sorry for it, as I was sure it was too hot - in a sense I anthropomorphise my work - the title fitted my emotional relationship to the object at that time, that’s a "private" aspect. My feeling is that the objects that I choose are talking, that is how I relate them. I pick out fragments, like a part of history, from texts; this is how I come upon my titles. I take a logical narrative text and pull bits out of it; this was the process for all of this body of work. The title for the work Oh was originally to be the title for Nike Of Samothrace. But emotionally and intuitively it became something else.

PB: Can you tell me of any upcoming projects?

NT: I'm working on a larger body of work for the Arnolfini Gallery (Bristol, UK), for this year. Followed by the Anthony Reynolds Gallery (London) for September 2005. All the works have grown out of the way materials 'talk' to me.

PB: There appear subtle parallels between your use of material and certain artists like Hesse, or even Morris, concerned with notions of "Anti-Form" in the late sixties, a tenuous link perhaps. Have their been any direct influences in the conception of your work?

NT: When I see artwork, I think I’m simply a viewer. I like many different artists, especially those artists’ that I feel work a material or subject strongly, especially when it is completely different from what I’m doing. They make me feel "The world is bigger than I thought". That makes me positive and gives me energy for my own work. So I suppose in that way I find inspiration, but I wouldn’t directly and consciously choose another artist to reference.

PB: There appears to be parallels with dance; the eye of the viewer takes a quite rhythmic journey, adding to the poetry of your materials, as you choreograph your own affectations through the movement of material and substance. We recognise the dance of these elemental formations through individual and collective experience and from the feel of singular materials and substances. We remember their textures, their weights, and we are also aware of their particular endothermic qualities, their temperature to our touch. Do you recognise these choreographic qualities?

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