Sta.sh
Abstract&Surreal
Interview with *KizukiTamura
How would you explain the concept of abstraction/surrealism to someone who has never heard of it before?
Surrealism refers to certain definite codes rooted in psychoanalysis, philosophy etc. and favours associative, non-logical processes like in dreams or automatic writing. Whereas abstraction is rather a personal vision of reality at a given time. In photography, abstraction often leads to a poetic approach, but also gives the opportunity of experimenting.
What inspires you to use the concept of abstraction/surrealism for your artwork?
As a matter of fact, I work rather with abstraction than with surrealism. In my eyes, surrealism is nowadays a bit outdated, but I am still very fond of Breton, Magritte and others, who transformed the artistic standards of their time.
In my work I do not aim at abstraction for abstraction's sake. It is more a matter of encounters and emotions. Or sometimes something just happens by chance. Then comes the editing. This is for instance the case for "This morning". Editing is very important. It is then necessary to "switch off" and to think of nothing else than the picture you work on.
What do you want to express with your artwork? What’s your source of inspiration?
I tell stories and I try to share them. Sometimes people see exactly what I intend to show, sometimes they see something different and it is a new source of inspiration for me. It is like describing a dream by means of photography, or modifying the reality of everyday life.
What inspires me? Well, for sure the books I read (Japanese literature above all, and especially Haruki Murakami), music too, like lately Lou Doillon's wonderful album: [link]
Lynch and Cronenberg too are very inspiring for me. I also get a lot of stimulation from my personal experiences, encounters, from what I observe while walking on the street or sitting at a café. There are many factors. For instance, I would listen to David Bowie while working on "Hello", hence the subtitle "This afternoon an alien played with my heart". But the same day I may read a book by Tanizaki, watch on old film by Lynch, and spend some time talking with friends at a café.
How would you explain the concept of your "kaleidoscopic artwork"?
I have been using that concept for some time now but it is still quite up to date. I am glad to see that quite a few artists on dA have adopted it in their artistic expression. I am not going to mention them all here, but I think especially of Pierre *Une-Vache, Isabelle ~Izaaaaa, Christiane *scheinbar, Emmanuel *Art2mys and Hanan *partiallyHere. And particularly fondly of Dave *davespertine, of course.
To read more on the subject, I recommend this link (thanks to *ideoda): [link]
And as a conclusion on that matter, some years ago I published a book [link] on Blurb, on the cover of which it reads:
- Squaring the circle of pictures
- in multiplying mirrors
- leads to the inescapable core of things.
Do you think that the “quality” of an artwork depends more on technical perfection or on the message/expression?
Technique is useful, of course, but it is never more than just a tool. Sure, the "message" (the meaning) is important, and material realization just as well. But it is quite possible to produce a very beautiful picture with a Smartphone, just as it is possible to produce a very poor picture with the latest Canon.
Who’s your favourite visual artist and why?
Mark Rothko and Pierre Soulages, definitely. It may seem a bit paradoxical to mention painters here, but they both modified completely our approach of art in general.
Which group on dA would you recommend to someone who’s searching for abstract/surreal photography?
I am administrator of
(thanks to ^Kaz-D). I think that this group is very open and offers a large sample of interesting works. Our group is doing quite well, even though we do insist on quality. There are many groups on dA who are less popular but do an excellent work, and without being specialised in abstract expression they have an "abstract component" which deserves to be mentioned:
Do you have any advices for absolute beginners or is there anything else that you’d like to say about abstract/surreal photography?
Let your imagination and inspiration go. Don't think too much. Try and try again, whatever the tool, as I said earlier. Make emotion and reality collide for transformation. Abstraction is not just anything, it is an open door to a huge scale of possibilities.
Some faves:
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Completely agree! ! !
His work is certainly one of the most inspiring that I got to see here on dA, I particularly like the concept of his kaleidoscopic images and features.