Q-1. How would you describe your work - for instance, do you think the LA Times description "subtle, dreamy and insidious" is a good one?
Children and childhood play the major role in your work - could you tell me more about why this is so?
A. No matter what it is that draws my interest, it always plays out through the filter of my self, which in my case is a reality less concerned with books, magazines, and other contemporary media than with my experiences and my past. And since much of the creation of one's self occurs during childhood, I have made this particular period iconic in my work.
Q-2. It is often said that your children are ambiguous in that they are both threatening and appealing - how do you view them?
A. Like everyone else, my personality has a double nature. I might look at black and see white, or imagine war in terms of peace. So, I am interested in presenting the space between such extremes.
Q-3. Do you think you will ever make a truly happy child?
A. What makes you think they are so unhappy? I think a lot depends on the viewer. I have always tried to imbue my figures with the complex pleasures of being a child.
Q-4. You say that emotions are very important to you - do you try and bring out the emotions of your figures, or are they extensions of your emotions? Can you describe the figures as in any way autobiographical?
A. I think the work is playing within the space between the selfishness and sensitivity of childhood and an adult's awareness of being part of a difficult society. In that sense, the work is both an intimate picture of my past emotions and an open take on the contemporary world.
Q-5. How important is it that your figures cannot communicate and are mute?
A. Their mouths may be closed, but there is a lot going on in those big heads. Having spent many years with them, we have developed a telepathic means for dialogue. I guess the puzzle remains for the viewer to do the same.
Q-6. How much is your work about the real world, and how much about the imagined and the remembered?
A. My work is what happens when the latter hooks up with the former. Sometimes its more imagined than real, other times more real than imagined.
Q-7. Could you tell me about the work you are making for your show at the Stephen Friedman gallery in London?
A. Please ask Stephen about that....
Most of the characters and images which emerge in my work are quoted from my past experiences and tend to be based on the dark or painful side of life.
What I want to encourage the viewer to consider through my work are not only social, emotional, or generational problems, but how to look for hope as well.
The images of animals and children may be misconstrued as illustrative, naive, or decorative--This is not in case.
These images stand for another possible way of living in society; one that opposes and seeks to remove the many barriers between us.
Yoshitomo Nara