Interview with Yuko Mohri 毛利悠子

 

Q: Your work often composes of large or small scales of installations. They look organic, fun and unexpectable at the same time. Do you consider yourself an installation artist? What do you want to create for your audience?

Yes, I consider myself as an installation artist. As you mentioned, my work changes like a landscape, moving unexpectedly, looked like a creature, even if I use machine and technology for my work. Hence, I expect to have this unexpected alteration without defining a result for my work. I would like the audiences to feel my work freely as if looking at a landscape and being absorbed in their own thoughts.

 

Q: You mentioned circus in one of your works “Circles, Circuits, Circus”. Could you explain more about how you apply the image of circus to your work? From this work, I feel a hidden desire of connection. Is this feeling close to your imagination and exploration of objects?

Through this trilogy of the exhibitions, I gave the new roles for old tools and machines as my artwork and exhibited them in three different environments, “Dark Space”, “Half Outside Space”, and “Bright Space”. Through the changes of these environments, I expressed that the roles of objects change, influence each other and connected in new way.

 

Q: Do you consider a physical space in the creation of your work? How do you work with the space when you install the work?

Yes. When I install my work, I examine an exhibition space carefully and think what I can do in the space. For instance, it can be a room with a window, a room with the concrete floor, and a room with environmental sound. There are countless small differences depending on each exhibition space. I test many different ways of how to collaborate my objects into these conditions in the space. A result of these multiple trials is expanded in the exhibition space.

 

Q: Do you collect anything? How do you find things that you need and make them work together?

I collect things that can be elements of my work every time I find them. It can be a gift from someone, something I find on the street, or something I buy at the store. I learn many things from its presence, shape, and the level of degradation. I put those objects at my studio or house and examine the way of the objects carefully and think how I can use them over and over again. And then I find my idea from this examination.

 

Q: Apart from the images, there are also mechanical components in your work. They create movement, sound and visual effects that arose our sensations. Do you always know what effects that you want to achieve?

I have been archiving my experience of exhibitions, landscape from the trip, feeling when I stand in the historical buildings and so on. It’s often hard to explain the feeling of these memories by words. Let’s say to think about “making a sound”, there has to be a “space” to make “sound”. Then, what kind of “space” makes what kind of “sound”? For example, if my experience of hearing sound of a bell at Japanese Shrine remains as a special memory, I think about how I can reconstruct this experience in my work. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same. Rather, I expect new discoveries each time I reconstruct something at different places. With that, I believe that we can experience something special in an exhibiting space where there are accumulations of different phenomenon.

 

Q: What was the situation that bought you to art at the beginning? If you don’t do art, what will you be?

I haven’t really thought about doing something else but art. To put it the other way around, what I do is suitable to explain as “Art” so that I become an artist. When I started to sell my work in 2013, I became strongly conscious that I am a professional artist. It was my first time to participate in Art Fair when I was showing my work at ART TAIPEI 2013. That being said, if I don’t do art, it might be ideal to be a landscape gardener.

 

Q: How do you usually work with curators or gallerists? Do you usually take on commissions or collaborations?

Curators and gallerists are people who can relate to my work in an objective way. Because of the nature of my work, how I work with them is to grow my work together for the exhibition. I usually make more commission work for the museum show or projects. Recently, I have more opportunities to work in performing art field and to collaborate with musicians.

 

Ｑ： 你的作品常常以大型亦或小型的裝置為主，他們看起來生動而充滿有機感，讓人覺得既有趣又無法預期。你認為自己是裝置藝術家嗎？你想為觀眾創造什麼？

Ａ： 是的，我認為自己是裝置藝術家。就像你說的，我的作品如風景般千變萬化，即使我使用的是機器和科技，最後仍然如同生物一般無法預期。因此我從不去限制作品最後會發展成什麼樣子，我想要觀眾自由地感受我的作品，如同欣賞風景一般，並產生屬於他們自己的想法。

 

Ｑ： 你在作品“Circles, Circuits, Circus”裡以馬戲團為主軸。可以請你說明你是如何運用馬戲團的概念嗎？在這件作品當中，我感受到了一份隱藏的、試圖產生「鏈結」的渴望。請問這樣的感受接近你當初對於「物件」的想像和研究嗎？

Ａ： 在這個展覽的三部曲中，我將舊物件賦予新的生命與角色，將它們展示在三種不同的場域。”Dark Space”、”Half Outside Space”、”Bright Space”。透過三種不同的環境變化，我想表達的是物件所扮演的角色改變，彼此影響並以新的方式重新結合。

 

Ｑ： 你會考慮作品的空間形態嗎？當你在設置你的作品時，要如何利用空間形態？

Ａ： 是的。當我設置作品時，我會仔細檢查展覽空間並思考在這個空間範圍內我能夠做的。舉例來說，假使有一個房間，它可以是有窗戶的房間、有水泥地板的房間、亦或充斥自然聲響的房間。隨著展演空間的差異，可以作出無數的變化與可能。我嘗試過許多方法讓我的物件在不同的空間條件下結合，而最後的結果便會在展覽空間中被放大。

 

Ｑ： 你有收集任何東西嗎？你如何尋找你想要的物件並將它們拼湊在一起？

Ａ： 我收集任何一發現便認為可能成為我作品元素的物件。可以是一個別人送的禮物，或是在街上發現的東西，或甚至在商店買的物品。我透過物品的存在，形態，退化的程度去瞭解一樣東西。我將這些物品放在我的工作室或家裡，時時檢查它們的狀態並思考如何重複使用。就在這思考的過程裡激盪出新的想法與點子。

 

Ｑ： 除了圖像，在你的作品中常常有機械的元素。它們為作品創造了能夠提高我們感官的一些流動、聲音、視覺效果。對於你想達到的效果你總是知道的嗎？

Ａ： 我會把我的感受分類，像是展覽經驗、旅行風景、或是當我站在一棟歷史建築前的情緒波動等等，這些感受是難以言喻的。來說說「製造聲音」這件事好了。要製造聲音，首先要有「空間」。什麼樣的空間能製造出什麼樣的聲音呢？舉例來說，假設在日本神社聽到的敲鐘聲讓我難以忘懷，我就會思考我要如何重建這項感官經驗並放置到我的作品當中，但又不必全然去複製，甚至，我期待的是在一次又一次重建的過程裡頭，去激盪出不一樣的火花。這麼一來，我認為我們就可以在由不同現象積累而成的場域產生最特別的感受。

 

Ｑ： 是什麼將你帶到藝術這個領域？如果你不從事藝術，你會選擇做什麼呢？

Ａ： 我從來沒認真想過除了藝術我還能做什麼。換句話說，我所作的這些，用藝術來詮釋是最適合的，因此我成為了藝術家。在2013年我販賣自己的作品時，我開始強烈意識到我是個專業的藝術家。ART TAIPEI 2013是我第一次在藝術博覽會擔任參展人。不過如果我不做藝術，最理想的職業大概就是當園藝師吧。

 

Ｑ： 你通常都是如何跟策展人或畫廊合作的？你通常都是藉由委託方式或是直接合作？

Ａ： 策展人跟畫廊人員都是能夠客觀地跟我一起工作的人。因為工作性質的關係，我如何跟他們共事，就會影響到我們如何去籌備一個展覽。我比較常委拖博物館去籌備我的作品和計劃。最近，我有比較多機會在表演藝術領域工作以及跟音樂家合作。