Yuki Hayashi. Collecting the Disconnected

Very soon, this year's Cyberfest will launch a video program featuring several artists, including Yuki Hayashi, whom we spoke to recently, ahead of the screening of his work. We talked about the visual and auditory aspects of his work, the influence of various filmmakers, current projects, and a sense of nostalgia. I treat Yuki Hayashi's projects with great sincerity, in which he very selectively shapes his reality, made up of the world of the elements around him. There is something in his work that I always love very much visually, big, made up of small. In his video there is a lot of sentimentality, but in the brightest and most pleasant sense. I really hope that his project will not go unnoticed and will find its audience.

The presentation of the video program as part of the Cyberfest will take place on November 17.

My thanks to Yuki Hayashi for his responsiveness and interest in this interview. And also Aki Nakazawa for her help in preparing the English version of this text.

Interview with Yuki Hayashi

Gendai Eye: I would like to start our conversation by talking about your project, which will be shown at the CYFEST festival. What is your project about and how did you work on it?

Yuki Hayashi: “Cells and Glass” was produced for "KYOTO STEAM − International Arts × Science Festival“, held at Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art. The Festival invited artists to produce their works though collaborations with companies and science institutions. The curator of the festival offered me to collaborate with CiRA (Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University). While I exchanged ideas with researchers of CiRA, I looked for the direction of my work, wrote the scenario and produced the film. At the festival I presented the real iPS cells and the laboratory instruments. The motifs of the work; fluid iPS cells, cytochimera and glass of a window are seen as the metaphors of „human being and animal“ and „inside and outside“. 

GE: Quite often, I begin interviews with the question of where the artist studied, who was among his fellow students and professors. What was your artistic context in the late 1990s?

YU: I studied video design at an art university near Osaka; film making, computer graphics and motion graphics. In the late 1990s, I was interested in art films, experimental films and animation, and I started film making. I joined the film project organized by the film director/artist Hiroyuki Oki to help him, and learned about film media and arts with him. The Russian animation artist Yuri Norstein gave me the biggest impact. Also, the film directors Jonas Mekas and Wim Wenders, the contemporary artist Tatsuo Miyajima and more artists influenced me. I watched films by the Russian directors like Y. Norstein, A. Sokurov, A. Tarkovski repeatedly at that time.

GE: Did you find it difficult to show your work early in your career? How has the situation changed for media art in Japan, in your example, over the past twenty years?

YU: In earlier times I presented my films at small regional film festivals in Japan. The film „landscape movie“ got luckily the special jury prize at Image Forum Festival in 2002. It is one of the biggest festivals for art films and experimental films in Japan. It gave me the connections to other international film festivals and exhibitions. After 20 years, the situation around media arts in Japan developed, I think. More and more film-, video- and media-arts are presented at exhibitions nowadays.

GE: What was your first video project?

YU: The first one was my student film „Sigh of Winter“. Though, „landscape movie“ can be mentioned as my first „artistic" project. „landscape movie“ was my master-diploma film. The first version was 30 minutes long and the final one in 2001 became 15 minutes after reedit and reproduction. The various photo materials were cut out and composed by computer. Additionally I used the technic of clay animation. It was chaotic and challenging project. It tells the story of a young man who wanders around the world alone. The influences from the films by Norstein, Jan Švankmajer, Wenders and Oji Suzuki are seen in this film.

GE: When I looked at your projects, oddly enough, I remembered one game studio from the Czech Republic, called Amanita Design. They make various indie-games in which many of the visual elements are also brought in from the real world. And even visually, some of your projects have something of the visual aesthetics of video games. Is there something like that in your works or am I mistaken?

YU: You can see it in my early works that I had an approach to visual aesthetics of video games. I made them with photographic materials, which look like scenes of video games. I tried to connect the reality and another world behind the monitor, or to dissolve them together. I´ve just found Amanita Design and it seems interesting! Thank you for your mentioning!

GE: You collect images of the real world, some time passes, and they become part of history and nostalgia. Are you experiencing something similar? What is nostalgia for you?

YU: Yes. Something passed and lost attracts me very much. Time is always passing by and we experience it everyday. Sometimes it makes me feel lost and I don´t know what to do. The nostalgia for me is to think and remember it. 

GE: How important is the way your work is shown? I saw them on big screens, on hemispheres in the planetarium, does that matter to you?

YU: It´s very important for some projects. It makes sense especially for the series of „another world“, when they are presented on very big monitors, because the motif and the theme are the enormous number of photo images existing on internet. It was once presented on the wall with the width of almost 100 m. There is the plan to exhibit only my work in the space of 1,500 square meters in 2022. I wish you and the people at CYFEST would see this installation someday.

GE: I was also interested in learning about the characters that sometimes appear in your work. Most of your visual language is composed of objects; there are not many people or animals there. Are the characters that appear in your works, are they your projection? What role do they play for the viewer?

YU: My earlier works have protagonists but only a few characters, as you mention. The reason might be my interest to depict the situation itself, how memories and data confront us. Some characters could be myself and my reflection but also the reflection of viewers. 

GE: I would also like to ask you about the musical component, your projects are always accompanied by very atmospheric musical compositions, you have even done music videos. How much attention do you place on the combination of visual and auditory?

YU: Music is very important element in my works and I use it very carefully. The musicians understand my concept and produce along it. Although my works are good enough to tell its theme by itself, music support it. I am very lucky to have excellent musicians around me. Though, I made works without music since 5 years. Producing of music videos is a job but gives me a chance of discovering, and it´s fun! I like to see the chemistry of music and visuals. Music is always by my side.  

GE: Do quarantine restrictions and the whole pandemic situation somehow affect your ability to collect information for projects? Or is it, on the contrary, a time for you when you can safely sort information and find a use for it?

YU: During the pandemic I had still chances of presentation. Some of them were held on internet. I stayed at home mostly and had more time for books and films. It was stressful to see how towns went quiet and lifeless, and that I could not go out for a drink at bars. On the other hand the quiet life was for me comfortable. Well, it sounds contradicting. So far I don´t see any direct influence of the pandemic to my theme or concepts but it could have happened while I was not aware of it.

GE: How well developed is the festival system in Japan for you to showcase your work? Or do you have to rely more on galleries and museums?

YU: Every 2 or 3 years I got a chance to present my film at Image Forum Festival. The festival sometimes introduces my films to other international film festivals. CYFEST is also an international „Hub“ and I expect a chance of the presentation at other places through it. My activities in Japan are presented mostly at museums, art centers and galleries. 

GE: I also wanted to ask you about your teaching at Takarazuka University. At what point did you realize that you would like to teach? What are you teaching your students?

YU: I moved from Takarazuka University to Otemon-Gakuin University in Osaka to teach at the department of the Sociology. I´ve never thought to be a teacher, and would rather like to participate in projects as an artist together with students. It is a good and exciting environment to enjoy it and learn a lot, while teaching is for me always a tough task. Currently I work for making short films and music videos with students, and give advises them for their installation works.  

GE: What are you working on now and what are your plans for the future?

YU: My new work is currently in production, which will be presented at the first exhibition of Nakanoshima Museum of Art Osaka opening in 2022. In this project, 3 artists will make video works consisting of private videos provided by people of Osaka, which are the variety of media like Hi8, miniDV, HD and even 8 mm film. I am working on it to show the good one and looking forward to the opening of this very big museum and the exhibition. Another project is my solo exhibition, will be presented at C.C.O (Creative Center OSAKA), in the space of 1,500 square meters. I have many things to do in the coming year. I want to visit Russia someday. Thank you for the interview!