Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building 2nd Floor = Men's Creators "ART UP" will be hosting "MOUT EXHIBITION 2," a solo exhibition by Chris Namaizawa, a rising artist who is currently attracting attention from within and outside the industry, starting November 2nd (Saturday).

The studio where the interview took place is piled high with back issues of fashion and culture magazines from the 1990s. This is because Chris says that 20 years ago, he was greatly influenced by Tokyo's street culture, which is where he found his starting point as an artist.

We spoke with Chris about his journey to becoming an artist, including the twists and turns he went through, and also about this exhibition.

Event Information

CHRIS NAMAIZAWA
Solo exhibition "MOUT EXHIBITION 2"

□November 2nd (Saturday) - December 10th (Tuesday)
□ Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building 2nd Floor = Men's Creators/Art Up

Click here for details ▶

Chris Namaizawa

I used to lack confidence, but my interest in fashion completely changed me.

"I'm half-Japanese, so I look like a typical 'foreigner.' That's why at middle school and high school entrance ceremonies, just when my name was called, people around me would murmur, 'There's a foreigner!', and I hated being pointed at just for walking around in my uniform."

But after discovering Tokyo street fashion, when I wore it, people started paying more attention to the items I was wearing rather than my face, and they started talking to me about fashion, which was a completely different way of having conversations than before.

That experience gave me confidence in myself. I've always loved clothes and I have a bit of a show-off side, so I started buying more and more magazines, gathering information, and I became completely engrossed in fashion."

However, after graduating from university, Chris chose the IT industry rather than the fashion industry.

"During my job search, I somehow started to think that I probably couldn't make a living in fashion. But I still wanted to be involved in creative work, so I vaguely thought about the creative department of an advertising agency, but then I heard that at major advertising agencies you have to start out in sales."

Back then, Yahoo! Auctions was at its peak, and there was this strange phenomenon happening online where worn-out, tattered clothes were selling for more than their original price. When I learned about that, I felt that the future of the internet lay not in the fashion industry itself, but in this unusual system. That's why I joined an IT company."

—At the company I joined, I was put in charge of a subsidiary dealing in the secondary distribution of apparel, and eventually even launched a brand.

"When I was a fourth-year university student, I was still a prospective employee, but the company president asked me if I wanted to start an apparel company. So I was able to participate from the very beginning as a founding member. We started a company that dealt in the secondary market for apparel, but in the secondary market, outerwear sells well in the winter and has a high unit price, but in the summer only T-shirts sell, so sales weren't growing. I was under tremendous pressure from the company and was worried, so I impulsively said, 'I'll start a brand!' because I wanted to do something about it. And that's how I started the brand."

Thanks to the senior designers around me, my brand was able to be carried by department stores and select shops nationwide, including Isetan, relatively soon after its launch. When a senior designer's brand presented a show in Paris, I was given the opportunity to present my own brand at the same time, which led to my brand being carried by world-renowned shops such as Colette in Paris. However, at that time, senior designers and people in the overseas apparel industry gave me a lot of harsh criticism regarding my approach to clothing design. That's when I realized I was using being a company employee as an excuse, and I started studying.

But for some reason at that time, I became more engrossed in art than studying fashion design. I started drawing myself, and I won awards in Japan, and my work started selling, so I got the wrong idea (laughs), thinking, "I can make a living doing this!" After that, I quit my job to pursue my art career, and I moved to America with my family, where there is a huge market for contemporary art."

My dream for the future is to turn the whole city into an art gallery.

—I impulsively moved to America, but it was tough to make a living as an artist.

"There's an annual feature in an American magazine called 'Art in America' that lists galleries across the country. Since I moved to San Francisco, I picked out about 400 galleries in California that seemed like a good fit for me. I tried to contact them all by email, but I only got one or two replies. When I went in person, I was often turned away, and I gradually lost confidence."

At that time, San Francisco had quite a few flea markets and thrift shops, so I bought some vintage American comics and magazines, wondering if I could somehow incorporate them into my work, and experimented with collage. When it didn't work out, I got frustrated and tore up the paper I had pasted, and I thought it was kind of fun. That's when my technique of decoupage, using torn paper to express things, began.

I lived in America for about two years, and through living in a country of immigrants, I felt like I was starting from scratch for the first time. I was able to truly realize that my roots are in Japan, Tokyo, and the streets, and that allowed me to take my first step as an artist.

—And apparently, his style has changed over time.

"When I was running my own brand, I had a broad concept, but it felt like I was working in isolation. For example, I'd think, 'This is trending, so let's incorporate it,' and I'd just keep finding these little things and presenting them. That was incredibly exhausting. In my art activities, I've tried to present my work from various angles through a street filter. Instead of being superficial, I incorporated elements like sampling, mixed various things, and layered the stories and history behind them."

Lately, I've been using 90s street culture magazines as my source material more often. Nowadays, you can get information on the internet, but back then, magazines were practically everything; they were the lifeblood of street culture. To get information, I started working at a convenience store late at night, and I would always schedule shifts on the 10th and 24th of each month, the release dates of magazines, so I could be the first to read the magazines that arrived late at night (laughs). I find the fun of art in being able to reconstruct these origins of mine and express them as art.

—At this solo exhibition, you can purchase artwork directly at the venue, and this offers a glimpse into Chris's passion for street culture.

"Art is something where there's only one original piece, and the price keeps going up, right? In the art industry, there are silkscreen prints and lithographs with edition numbers as reproductions, but I felt uncomfortable with the idea of simply printing it on paper and signing it."

If that's the case, then I thought, maybe I could create reproductions of my artwork on T-shirts and hoodies, and then add my signature and edition number to them, elevating them into art that's uniquely mine? If people wore them and walked around town, wouldn't the street itself become a gallery? Wouldn't that become a new street culture? My imagination started running wild with these thoughts (laughs).

This time, we'll also be selling T-shirts and hoodies as art pieces, each in an edition of 8 pieces. Including the color and size, each one will be a unique piece in the world.

──Finally, we asked about your future plans as an artist.

"I want to stay involved with street culture. I also want to create things that are neither solely fashion nor solely art, but somewhere in between. I want to propose a new style or a kind of artwork, and just like how I used to admire Hiroshi Fujiwara and NIGO, I hope to create something that can influence the next generation."

Event Information

CHRIS NAMAIZAWA
Solo exhibition "MOUT EXHIBITION 2"

□November 2nd (Saturday) - December 10th (Tuesday)
□ Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building 2nd Floor = Men's Creators/Art Up

Click here for details ▶

Text: Kei Osawa
Photo: TAGAWA YUTARO (CEKAI)

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Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building 2nd Floor = Men's Creators
03-3352-1111 (main representative)