27 Jul

INTERVIEW

Our first interview is with Usugrow who curated the ‘Shinganist’ show, its been a real inspiration having USUGROW, MOZYSKEY, TOSHIKAZU NOZAKA, BENE and JUN KANEKO in the gallery, true to the meaning behind “Shingan” – those who create based on visions spurred by the mind’s eye and those who are not affected by the opinions and expectations placed on them by the outside world.

Thanks to Chris Osburn for the words

SS – How did you get started as an artist?
Usugrow – very difficult question. Because I was always drawing since childhood, like being so a lot of people since childhood.

SS – What was the inspiration behind shinganist?
U – They are really good artists. I respect them, and very important points is they styles have strong japanese elements in artworks. We were all influenced from graffiti, skate, punk rock, hiphop. those cultures had been spread to Japan in the 70’s. We are the second generations of people who are influenced from them and started creating. and we began to consider mixing not only those influences but also Japanese culture with the work. I wanted to introduce it to the world.

SS – Did you know the other artists involved or did you seek them out for this project?
U – We are friends before starting this project.

SS – What does Shinganist mean?
U – It’s a combination of the words, SHINGAN (mind’s eye in Japanese) and -ist that Usugrow has created. The meaning of the word is people who create by seeing things in their mind’s eye, and it’s people that don’t get bothered or influenced easily by things around them.

SS – Will shinganist show in other cities
U – We done show in san francisco before london. next show is tokyo

SS – Been to london before? What do you think of the ciity and its art scene?
U – We are first time visit to london. There is a history in the town as much as Japan and it is very beautiful, and we met a lot of great artists at stolenspace and we got inspiration from them. I felt that the art takes root in daily life.