Episode 174 | Haley Takahashi

Published January 24, 2023

Transcript

Miranda Metcalf  00:19

Hello, print friends, and welcome. I'm your host, Miranda Metcalf. This is a bilingual podcast. So if you subscribe to us, you'll be getting episodes in English with me, as well as in Spanish with Reinaldo Gil Zambrano. Together, we speak to people from around the globe about their practice and passions in the fields of print media and multiples. Hello, Print Friend is brought to you by Speedball Art Products, currently offering possibly the best thing to happen to relief printmaking, their Woodzilla presses. Beautifully made in the Netherlands, these uniquely engineered presses perfectly combine superior craftsmanship and performance at a price that makes them accessible whether you're a seasoned printmaking pro or new to the craft. Available across five sizes, each Woodzilla press is precisely manufactured from heavy duty steel and designed to apply uniform pressure without undue work or stress for the artist, while still guaranteeing a beautifully printed result at every reveal. Check out these beauties through the link in the show notes. My guest this week is Hayley Takahashi. We talk about her journey as an art history student turned artist, the particulars and complexities of drawing on Ukiyo-e imagery as a Japanese American artist, her long standing self portrait practice, and how it shows up in her current work. So without further ado, sit back, relax, and prepare to get self reflective with Haley Takahashi. Hi, Haley, how's it going?

Haley Takahashi  01:49

Oh, so good. How are you?

Miranda Metcalf  01:52

I'm really good. I'm really good. It is so nice to meet you. And I was just introduced to your work through the Five By Five jurying. And I fell in love with it instantly. I was like, 'I like what this person is doing!' And so when the list was sent out for the different podcasters to interview people, I was like, 'I want Haley Takahashi.'

Haley Takahashi  02:14

That is so nice! Like I told you over our little email conversation, I have been listening to this for so long. And it's just so amazing to be on here with you.

Miranda Metcalf  02:26

Oh, I'm so happy you're here. Like I said, I think we're gonna have a great chat, and I just really look forward to learning more about your work.

Haley Takahashi  02:35

Oh, thank you. So excited.

Miranda Metcalf  02:38

So before we dive in, if you've listened to an episode or two, I think you know what's coming, which is the questions who you are, where you are, what you do.

Haley Takahashi  02:48

Cool. Well, I'm Hayley Takahashi. I'm currently in my final semester of grad school, getting my MFA at UTK [University of Tennessee, Knoxville]. So I'm based out of Knoxville, but I'm from Fort Collins, Colorado, and I'm a printmaker. I've been feeling a little more interdisciplinary as of late, where I branch in whatever direction my creative spirit takes me, but always having that foundation in print.

Miranda Metcalf  02:53

Absolutely. Well, and I think when people dive into things a bit, and when practices get more in depth, particularly through something like grad school, you can get to the point where you're like, 'Everything is print,' really. It's all print.

Haley Takahashi  03:34

Yeah, it's a joke amongst my cohort that we're like, 'Is this a print? Is this a print?' Because everything can be a print!

Miranda Metcalf  03:46

Absolutely, absolutely. And so before we get into the now, let's dive into the past a little bit. Can you let me know where you grew up, and what role art had in that part of your life?

Haley Takahashi  03:58

Absolutely. So like I said, I grew up in Fort Collins, Colorado. My dad was actually an art teacher. He's been retired for a while now, but art has always just intrinsically been part of my life. And as I've heard many artists say, it's something they've always known and always done, and I can relate to that a lot. I remember sitting on my dad's lap [when I was] really young and being like, 'Draw a hot air balloon! Now draw a bird! Now draw...' whatever, and he'd just do it for me. Which was really, really sweet and cool. So I think I always knew I wanted to be an artist, and I fell very naturally into it because of how I was raised.

Miranda Metcalf  04:40

Absolutely. And so what art did your father do?

Haley Takahashi  04:43

He, funny enough, did print and papermaking, and he taught ceramics and photo at the high school I went to. So he had many a medium, too, and now he actually is a fly fisherman.

Miranda Metcalf  05:01

Oh, lovely!

Haley Takahashi  05:02

And he ties little flies, and that's what he does. Just really cool. And my mom's very creative, too. She sews and quilts and is amazing at that. So I had a very creative upbringing.

Miranda Metcalf  05:17

Yeah, absolutely. And then, so, when you were finishing up high school, did you know, alright, I'm going to find some art track? Or did you have a practical stint for a while?

Haley Takahashi  05:30

Yeah, I went through a weird moment of self doubt, where you have, like, a partner who isn't supportive, and art teachers who... I felt entitled to their praise, which I absolutely wasn't. And so it was this very strange time where I was fully convinced that I could not make a career out of art. And then there are people who said, 'It's too hard, you don't have what it takes... it's hard. And you're not gonna be able to do it.' And I was like, 'You're right. I'm going to do something else.' So I went into undergrad as an art history major. I still love art history. It's so great. I've like, played around with the idea of getting another degree in art history. But I was so lost, and so sad, because I so deeply believed that I wasn't going to be able to make it as an artist. And I was an art minor. And so I only had a very small number of classes, where I could actually take studio art classes. And I was signed up for ceramics and photography. And I went to the first day of photography, and was like, 'Absolutely not. This is not for me. I only get so many art classes, I'm not going to take this photo class.' And so I went to my advisor, and I was like, 'Please just get me in something else.' And she was like, 'The only classes that are open are relief and monotype.' And I was like, 'Okay, I don't know what a monotype is, but I'll take that class.' And that absolutely changed my life. Like, as cheesy as it sounds, it was incredible. I met Melanie Yazzie, who's absolutely as delightful and amazing as her reputation.

Miranda Metcalf  07:38

Oh, yeah. She's on the wish list for the podcast, for sure.

Haley Takahashi  07:42

Oh, my gosh. She's so great. I hope you get to talk to her. She was just like, exactly what I needed in that time of my life where it was... like, feeling so, so sad and down, and going into this print class. I remember the first day we were doing monotypes, I rolled out ink onto a table that didn't have glass on it.

Miranda Metcalf  08:04

Aw!

Haley Takahashi  08:05

And like, she was just like, so kind and gentle. And she was... like, halfway through that class, she sat me down. And she was like, 'So you're changing your major?' And I was like, 'No, I don't think I can.' She was like, 'Haley, you're an artist. I don't know what you're doing. But you should be an artist. You should get a BFA. I believe in you.' And I just ran with that since then.

Miranda Metcalf  08:41

That makes me want to cry, it's so sweet. And it's so... like, to really be seen by someone like that is always so powerful, I think.

Haley Takahashi  08:46

It was absolutely what I needed at the time. And I'm so grateful. I still get teary eyed. Like, I don't know where I would be without that strange turn of events where I refused to take photo.

Miranda Metcalf  09:07

I think that experience that you had, too, and at a pretty young age, has got to be so powerful and forming. To know that when you're not in your truth, even if your truth is impractical, or whatever it is, when you're not in it, it creates a real sickness of spirit. And that sounds like what you were experiencing.

Haley Takahashi  09:31

Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

Miranda Metcalf  09:34

Because you're an artist, and you need to be doing art.

Haley Takahashi  09:36

I was an artist! I'm an artist!

Miranda Metcalf  09:41

Oh, that's so wonderful.

Haley Takahashi  09:42

Yeah, it's really great. And my parents were incredibly supportive for the entire thing, and have been up to... forever. So it's great.

Miranda Metcalf  09:51

Up to today! Yeah, hopefully going forward. Oh, that's really beautiful. And so you were doing monotype and relief, and then you switched your major. And at this point, you have this art historical background, because you were taking classes in that. And at least in your current practice, I definitely see references to historical pieces. Was that weaving in already happening at the undergraduate level because you had this little foray into art history, do you think?

Haley Takahashi  10:26

Oh, absolutely. I have always been very taken with Japanese Ukiyo-e prints. And I think - I'm half Japanese, and that's a very big part of my artistic practice. And when I was in art history, that was what I was most excited about. And then when I got into this print class, I was like, okay, now I'm... doing the process. Even though it's not - I wasn't doing, like, Inlay or Moku Hanga prints. I was making little monotypes. But having that inspiration has just been something that I've carried with me ever since. And I've been trying to expand past that one singular inspiration, but there's just such a wealth of knowlege... Absolutely. Yeah, and it's been - I think in undergrad, it was a lot of really direct inspiration. And as I've grown, it's become more about me trying to create this identity or define this identity for myself as being Japanese American, and being biracial, and what it means for me, someone who was born and raised in America, to be inspired by these pieces. So, yeah, that's something I grapple with a lot.

Miranda Metcalf  11:20

Yeah, it's a whole world. I started out at Davidson Galleries in Seattle in my professional career, and we had a lot of Japanese historical prints in the collection, and we had these cylinder boxes. And you could see how much they were changing between, like, Edo period and Shin Hanga, and all these different things. And then you get into this absolutely brilliant abstraction and minimalism in the mid century. And it is so deep that I feel like if you were drawing from it artistically, I mean, that is almost a well that would never run dry, because there's just so much there. Yeah. And so were you originally introduced to Ukiyo-e and Moko Hanga through art history? Or was that at all a part of your growing up and having artistic people in the family?

Haley Takahashi  12:55

I feel like Japanese print is already in the American zeitgeist, like the Great Wave, you can't go anywhere without seeing that. I went to the Met with my family the first time I visited New York and saw the prints up close. And that really changed my point of view on it. And I knew that if I was going to go into art history, that's what I wanted to study, because I did have this personal cultural connection. And that hasn't really changed even though I've switched modes of working.

Miranda Metcalf  13:37

Yeah. And so you were talking about how you had this direct response, and now it's a bit evolved, as you as an artist are evolving. And so the way I've seen it appear, I think, really interestingly in your work, is actually as objects within the composition. So you can tell that sometimes the figures, or how the figures are rendered, are a reference to specifically Ukiyo-e tradition, but then the actual pieces will show up as well, which I think is really interesting. It has this inception-type quality of the piece within the piece, that also is reflecting of the piece.

Haley Takahashi  14:21

Yeah, I've really been playing around with the reasons why I chose to be inspired specifically by Edo period prints, and Utamaro, and thinking about the context and meaning behind those works when they were made, and then what it means then for me to be working in a similar way now. And that's also, that's changed a lot as I've gone through grad school.

Miranda Metcalf  14:59

Yeah. And it's interesting, because a couple times you've spoken to what it means as someone who's a Japanese American taking this imagery and transforming it and turning it into her own voice. And I'm sure this is an ongoing exploration. But do you have any insights for what that does mean?

Haley Takahashi  15:19

Yeah. I'm not gonna say that I know the most wise and all-seeing answers to this, but - and it is very much an individual struggle - but I know something that I've been coming to terms with and dealing with is the idea of cultural appropriation. And I still struggle with getting maybe uncharacteristically upset over the appropriation of Japanese imagery. Like, I used to be really sour about anime, there were just many moments where I felt so upset that there were people who had not gone through the struggles that are present in the American society that we live in, and didn't experience marginalization, and then were just picking and choosing aesthetic things, and reducing an entire population down to those small symbols or, you know, clothes, or pieces of culture. And I used to get really, really mad about it. And then the more I thought about it, the more I was like, am I even entitled to be using this inspiration in my work? Like, I'm Japanese American, I'm not Japanese from Japan. And like, what does that say? And I feel like, for a time, it felt like reclamation for me. That I was taking back some sense of this identity and reworking it into my context. And I think now, I'm trying to understand appreciation and appropriation, and maybe making more of a... I don't want to say political statement, it's not really a political statement. But to say, what does it mean for me, as a Japanese American, as someone who's biracial, to have to reach for these cultural symbols? Because it's something that was taken away, or that was looked down upon historically? Yeah, that's a very long winded answer.

Miranda Metcalf  18:01

No, I think it's a beautiful answer. And really, I think, vulnerable for you to answer it as honestly as you did. When it is such muddy waters. It sounds like it's so personal to you as well. So that's twofold. Like, you're working with something that is really complex, but also really personally charged. So I really appreciate your openness to the question. Yeah, because it is really complicated. Which, of course, is always the really reductive phrase that doesn't really mean anything, but I don't know a better one as of yet. And as you talk about the appropriation of Japanese imagery, I mean, it's so pervasive, and I think, particularly, it has a long history in the United States, but it had this weird climax in the early aughts, where the singers on MTV were wearing kimono, and everyone was getting kanji tattoos, and it had this huge moment that still continues in some ways, of course, but it just was everywhere, and I'm guessing that that was probably around your more formative years. And so trying to figure out adult personhood at the same time, you're seeing all of this reflected back to you in popular imagery and media. I mean, I can't imagine that could not leave an impression on you.

Haley Takahashi  19:38

Absolutely. Absolutely, and I cannot tell you how many times people... I'll be like, 'Yeah, I'm half Japanese. My last name is Takahashi,' and they'll be like, 'Do you watch anime? Do you speak Japanese?' And it's like, just these very intense questions right out of the gate, big assumptions. And yeah, it's continued to leave an impact on me.

Miranda Metcalf  20:09

Yeah, that is just such a misinformed way of trying to connect, and inherently otherizing in this way that I feel like is just... you know, at a certain point, intention doesn't matter. You know, it's like, what's the real effects here of this way that you are interacting with Japanese culture and Japanese people?

Haley Takahashi  20:33

Exactly, yeah. And like, I get the very real desire to appreciate these things. I feel like I also have that tendency. And maybe it's for a little bit different reasons, but it is just a big, whirling, complex beast to deal with.

Miranda Metcalf  21:03

Yeah. Do you ever get the opportunity to hash these things out with your Japanese family members, or Japanese community, or your Japanese parent? And is that someone, or people, who can understand where you're coming from? Someone you can connect with on these issues and get other perspectives?

Haley Takahashi  21:22

Yeah, I haven't really found that community, per se. I find that a lot of other biracial artists who I meet, we have a synergy or connection where we understand the reasons behind the choices we make and the art that we make. And that's really beautiful and lovely. And I specifically really wanted to go to UTK to work with Koichi Yamamoto. It was very important to me when choosing grad schools to go to a school with an Asian or Asian American faculty member. Because I knew I would want to hash out these issues. And Koichi is fantastic, one of the most generous people I've ever met.

Miranda Metcalf  22:13

That's wonderful, yeah. I'd love to get a chance to give you some space to reflect on the women in your work and the female bodies, because there is a long and deep and horrendous tradition of fetishizing and commodifying Japanese women's bodies.

Haley Takahashi  22:38

Yes.

Miranda Metcalf  22:38

Through art, through culture. And a lot of that has to do with, and that objectification can come through in, the way the bodies are shown and take up public spaces through works of art, or through advertisements, or whatever it is. And so you are putting these bodies in your work, standing on the shoulders of this huge cultural burden.

Haley Takahashi  23:07

Yeah.

Miranda Metcalf  23:08

Can you speak to that? I know that's a huge question, but...

Haley Takahashi  23:11

Yeah, it is a big question. I've always seen the figures in my work as extensions of myself. I had a really cute elementary school art teacher who had us draw self portraits every year. And I ran with that and continued to do it and still continue to do that. And it feels very self reflective. And so all of these figures... I rarely, I don't... I'm trying to even think about a piece where I didn't intentionally make the main figure an extension of myself. That sounds so narcissistic! I don't mean it like that. But I'm trying to be truthful about these themes and things that I'm trying to express through my work. And I can't speak for anyone else, or anyone else's experience, or tell anyone else what to feel or how they've experienced things. So I've filtered everything through me. And a lot of the pieces that do have those traditional, rendered, you know, Japanese print style figures, they were really heavily based on Utamaro, and specifically "[The] Twelve Hours in [the] Yoshiwara," which is a very problematic series of prints now, if you think about the context, that it was the glorifying of the red light district of Edo. And it was depicting these women as having happy, beautiful lives when in reality, it wasn't really what it was. And I tried to think about that as like, what would somebody looking at my life see? So I want to be very candid about longing and isolation and loneliness. And also the figure, I always - I never make the figure confronting the viewer. And that's both a way to maybe protect the figure a little bit, but also to maybe make the viewer contend with their position as a viewer. Does that make sense? The viewer in the space.

Miranda Metcalf  23:28

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it reminds me, too, of traditional Ukiyo-e depictions of women. Often it's that, showing off the back of the neck, which is, of course, the... the erogenous zone. I don't know how to say that respectfully. But it's the sexy bits. And seeing that too, in your contemporary figures, it just has such a sense of time and place that then is butted up against Dr. Pepper cans. And I think it gives such an interesting feeling of time and place and history sort of all coming together.

Haley Takahashi  26:34

Yeah, absolutely. I know that not everyone knows the history of Japanese prints and can relate back to these subtle details, but I hope that they're communicating a sense of nuanced reexamining of these old sources, the way that I have in making the work.

Miranda Metcalf  27:03

Yeah, and I think what's sort of interesting about the visual lexicon is that I think people know that silhouette, even if they don't know that they know it, of the dark hair tied up and the neck from behind. I think people, even if they've just seen it on the walls in Pan-Asian cuisine restaurants in a strip mall, I think that it is such an iconic symbol, at least for me, that I think it will come through even if they're not a print nerd like myself.

Haley Takahashi  27:40

I hope so!

Miranda Metcalf  27:41

So then you also do, and particularly last year, and 2020 and 2021, you've seen this use of actual photography that look like historical photographs or family photographs. Who are these figures? And how does it fit in with everything?

Haley Takahashi  27:57

Yeah, I started doing some cyanotype. So that's one photo method. Screenprint is probably my favorite of the print mediums and just everything you can do with it. That's been another way that I started using photos. But I had access to these family photos. And I really wanted to cache through family history, maybe a little bit of generational trauma, also a sense of reclamation. Some of them are from my dad's side of the family. There's pictures of my grandparents and my dad and his sisters as children. I've done some work with my dad's Air Force portrait. And one of them is a picture of my great grandma on my mom's side. Her name was Nona, even though she is not Italian and she was a grandma. Because Nona means grandma in Italian. But she was a firecracker and a really awesome lady, and thinking about that maternal line as well. Because that has been something that I have maybe neglected a little bit in my work. I'm so focused on trying to hash out and work through my Japanese-ness that I sometimes forget about my whiteness as well. And I think as I continue on as an artist, that will be something that I will figure out.

Miranda Metcalf  29:37

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think that that's such an interesting part of that exploration and part of the inherent white supremacist culture in the United States, is that in mixed race people, the whiteness culturally tends to be erased. Because it's just like, it's trying to continue to hold the seat of power by not letting people in. That's the goal. That's how it works.

Haley Takahashi  29:39

Yes. Absolutely.

Miranda Metcalf  30:10

And I think for people who, through the explicit and implicit bias that non-white people experience, I could see how the non-white identity would feel like it was coming more forward because of how you're received in the world. And then also to have to then realize, wait, wait, wait, I'm so much more complex. I'm a complex thing. And look through that, it's gotta be a whole 'nother kettle of fish.

Haley Takahashi  30:44

Absolutely. Yeah. I contain multitudes.

Miranda Metcalf  30:47

Yes! Yeah, yeah.

Haley Takahashi  30:53

It's very hard. And, I think, was not something that I started to really contend with until I started making prints... And it was one of those things that I tried to - when I was younger, I can remember trying to not be as Japanese, which is so heartbreaking now to think about. And another reason that I am really attached to these family photos is my grandparents were interned during World War Two. And I have a lot of strong feelings... I don't know if anger is the right word, but sadness surrounding what was taken from them. And the fact that, like, my dad never learned Japanese. And he probably didn't learn Japanese because his parents were so afraid of what would happen if someone saw him speaking Japanese. Maybe he doesn't feel that way. I haven't talked to him about it, and I probably should. But yeah, I feel as if something has been taken, and it's very hard to get back. And so it's clinging to the family ephemera.

Miranda Metcalf  32:18

Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And I know that some of the imagery around the Japanese internment camps shows up in your work. And I feel like there's something about how that history of Japanese internment is so hidden.

Haley Takahashi  32:39

Yeah.

Miranda Metcalf  32:39

That it's a devastating part of our history that I think, even when I was in school in the 1990s, wasn't really talked about. In the Pacific Northwest, where there were massive internment camps! Like, that history there is so recent and so present. I mean, the biggest fairgrounds in the state is the site of a Japanese internment camp. And it's still not put forward in that traditional telling of World War Two, which was like, 'Hitler was bad, and Europe was losing, and then we came in! The end! And we saved the world.' And it's just like...

Haley Takahashi  33:30

No, so much happened. Yeah, I remember in fifth grade, we were learning about the Holocaust. And we were reading The Fault in our Stars. And... my sweet, sweet little baby Haley. I went up to my teacher, and I was like, 'Am I Jewish?' And she laughed, and she was like, 'Haley. No, you're not Jewish.' And she, of course - both my parents were educators- she knew my family. And I was like, 'But my family got taken away. My family went to camp.' Sorry, I'm like tearing up talking about it.

Miranda Metcalf  34:10

That's okay. Yeah.

Haley Takahashi  34:12

But she was incredible. And we had a full week where we just talked about Japanese internment. Um - sorry.

Miranda Metcalf  34:24

No, no need to apologize at all.

Haley Takahashi  34:27

Yeah, but that was a really beautiful thing for her to do. It wasn't part of the curriculum, and she saw fit to tell us about it. So that was really cool. And yeah, I still obviously carry a lot of sadness.

Miranda Metcalf  34:48

Yeah, yeah. I'm just giving you some space - I don't want to jump in and cut you off at all. So I'm just being quiet over here.

Haley Takahashi  34:58

Oh, no, it's totally fine.

Miranda Metcalf  34:59

I want to make sure that you say everything that you need to and want to. Because I can feel it through the screen. The hiddenness of the history is just horrendous and confusing and gaslighting and all of those things for the Japanese-American experience.

Haley Takahashi  35:22

Absolutely.

Miranda Metcalf  35:23

Yeah. And so, given that history that you feel so strongly [about], and it's still so present for you, how do you go about even beginning to fold something like that into an artistic practice? Because it's so big, and I can feel how much it's a part of you. And how do you wed that to your making?

Haley Takahashi  36:00

Yeah, sometimes it's hard for me to think about these multiple facets of myself at once. So I feel like I've had bodies of work that are really talking about family history, and really focused on making sure the stories are told. Because if we -the people who were in internment camps, who are still alive, are very old. And again, this is a history that hasn't been outwardly shared for a very long time. I think it's starting to change. Hopefully, fingers crossed. And I feel like if I don't talk about it, then who's going to? I'm also incredibly inspired by Roger Shimomura - I don't know if you've seen his work - I remember, he had a piece up at the KMA, and I just stood in the gallery and cried. And I think seeing someone talk so candidly about that experience was really eye opening to me. Like, it's something that my family won't talk about. And it's something that I feel would be disrespectful to ask of my family members who are still living that experienced that, even though it is, I feel, so vital to understanding how I exist in this society. So it's really grasping at straws and trying to work through things through the work. It's very cathartic and therapeutic at times. But yeah, I try and keep the memory alive, per se.

Miranda Metcalf  37:49

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And one of the pieces I'm particularly thinking of that's just really, like, hit-you-over-the-head-with-a-brick powerful that you've done is the kimono that hangs with the text. I don't know if - I'm sure you can speak to if it's from a poster or a newspaper or something, but it looks like it's maybe a poster?

Haley Takahashi  37:49

That's an executive order.

Miranda Metcalf  38:18

Yeah. On the fabric. And it's just, it's so beautiful and so chilling at the same time. And, I think, really powerful in the space that it takes up. So this is also sort of a way to get into being curious about making the work that you do translate from the two dimensional to the three dimensional. Some of the reason why that piece has so much presence is because of its physical presence. Because it's hanging, you can walk around it, it's large. So it's serving a really different purpose than a small print. So I'm hoping you can speak to that element of what you do.

Haley Takahashi  39:02

Absolutely. Yeah, that foray into kimono making was me really just following a hunch and a desire. And like I said, my mom's a seamstress. So I've known how to sew, she taught me how to sew when I was very young. I have a - the sewing machine I use now is passed down through three generations of my family on my mom's side. And I knew that I wanted to print on fabric, I knew that I wanted to make kimonos because they speak so closely to a body. I mean, I love figures. And I think the kimono is just an extension of the figure. But it's also talking about absence, and the absence of the figure, while also representing it. And that piece came from this frustration where I wanted people to be confronted with the history and have to contend with it in the space. And so it's like eight feet tall, five feet wide. It's, I believe, 42 yards of fabric that I hand printed and hand dyed. And it was a lot of labor and time. A lot of work. And I felt very driven and very passionate to make it, and it serves as one of my most successful pieces that I've ever made. And then I think, because of the success of that piece, I've been constantly curious about how I can translate print or use print in the three dimensional space. And actually, for my master's show, for my thesis, I'm building a room of Shoji screens.

Miranda Metcalf  41:06

Oh, wow.

Haley Takahashi  41:08

It will be like a room within a room that the audience can't enter, they can't enter the interior room, and have a light source in the center of that and have prints stretched on the outside. Because print is so much about communication, I think. And that could be my Gemini rising talking. But I love print for the context of communication, of getting knowledge out there or sharing information. And I've been thinking about, when I bring it into three dimensional space, how is this communicating differently or better? Or how can I best communicate what I'm trying to communicate with the medium? So that's been the inspiration behind that.

Miranda Metcalf  42:00

Yeah, absolutely. And to that end, you recently had an exhibition at Gallery 1010 Collaborative that had a lot of 3D works in it, "Silk Memorial." Can you speak to that?

Haley Takahashi  42:14

Yeah, so me and another member of the cohort - his name's Anthony Huang, he's incredible - he was doing these huge fabric installations. And I approached him, and I was like, 'Anthony.' I was like, 'I have a sewing machine. We need to make kimonos.' And so we set the date, we did it, applied for the show, made the kimonos, and then everything else in that show was works on fabric as well. And we were both thinking about this cultural history, our relationship to it, having an emotional response, and I ended up also - he printed all the fabric on it that was on the outside, and then I printed and dyed all the fabric on the inside. And so thinking about what is outwardly shown and what is close to you within that. But it was just a very logical collaboration. And I really enjoyed working with him. And working with another Asian artist, I think, is awesome. I love the idea of expanding community and working together. And so that was great.

Miranda Metcalf  43:37

Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah. And we can cut this out of if you don't want it in there, but if you're particularly keen to work with other artists, would you say that if they wanted to reach out to you if they hear the podcast and are interested, you'd be open to it?

Haley Takahashi  43:52

Absolutely! I'd be open to working with literally anyone! I think we have so much that can be shared. And it's just such an awesome medium because we can share it so freely, and like, print exchanges and projects, and... yeah, I would just be so psyched to talk with and work with anyone.

Miranda Metcalf  43:53

Oh, good!  Oh, good. I love that. I love that. A true print friend.

Haley Takahashi  44:23

Yes! Print friends!

Miranda Metcalf  44:27

As you mentioned, you're getting to the point where you're working on your senior show - or, it's not a senior show if it's graduate school. Is it Master's show, thesis show?

Haley Takahashi  44:38

Thesis show.

Miranda Metcalf  44:38

You're working on your thesis show. So that means that you're coming to the end of the graduate school experience. What are you hoping to do after? Are you looking to teach, to travel, to do residencies? I mean, all of the above, none of the above?

Haley Takahashi  44:56

That is such a big question right now. I think I always wanted to teach, and especially being the child of two teachers, I value the process of education. And the people who give their lives to teaching, I think, are incredible people. And I would love to be in that realm. And in the same breath, I'm 25. I am a teensy, tiny little baby, in the grand scheme of my entire art career. And I want to just experience whatever I can experience, I want to do residencies, or travel, or whatever. But I also really want to teach. It's very, it's hard. It's like there's too many choices right now.

Miranda Metcalf  45:52

Yeah, totally. And I can imagine, too, particularly the place where you are leading up to the thesis show, so much creativity and energy and processing power is going towards that, that it almost probably seems like deciding what comes after that just needs to happen when you get there. Because right now, you're making the biggest, most ambitious art collaboration of your life.

Haley Takahashi  46:20

But it's also like, it's just such a little drop in the pond of what I will hopefully do in the rest of my artistic career. And like,  applications are due soon. So it's an interesting place to be in for sure.

Miranda Metcalf  46:39

Yeah, definitely. I want to get a chance to talk to you a little bit more about the craft of your work and the actual media that you use, and this idea of using these images that draw from traditional Ukiyo-e, but you're not using woodcuts to do them. And that actual philosophy behind that choice.

Haley Takahashi  47:06

Yeah, absolutely. I just adore screenprinting. It makes sense to me, ever since I started doing it, it just clicked and made sense. And I think when it got down to the concepts and techniques, I started on a path where I was like, 'I really need to learn Moku Hanga, I really need to learn relief.' And it just didn't make sense to me the way that screenprint did. And so I was thinking, like, how can I conceptually back this? And what is my conceptual choice? And I think it really comes down to that pop communication, that very contemporary feeling that screenprinting can have, in the very direct, very flat colors. I think there's a lot of similarities between what you can do with woodblocks and what you can do with screenprinting. And I love a blend roll, a split fountain, as cheesy as it is - I bet so many people listening to this are probably like, 'Of course!' - but looking back to the Bokashi gradients in Moku Hanga, and that soft blend, you can do that with screenprinting. And that's really interesting to me. And so I think it speaks to me not just trying to recreate Ukiyo-e prints, but actually filtering it through myself and transforming it and speaking in a contemporary fashion.

Miranda Metcalf  48:56

Yeah. Oh, that's really beautiful. So what are you looking forward to? Anything else on the horizon that you want people to know about, that you want support for, anything like that?

Haley Takahashi  49:12

I mean, Five By Five, Print Santa Fe. Amazing! I still am absolutely flabbergasted that I was chosen for this. My thesis is coming up at the end of March, which is very soon. If anyone wants to hire a super cool printmaker who knows lots of stuff, let me know!

Miranda Metcalf  49:36

You're like, 'I know a girl!' Yeah.

Haley Takahashi  49:44

Yeah, I'm just trying to experience the present moment and not look too far in the future.

Miranda Metcalf  49:54

That's wonderful. Well, where can people find you, follow you, get in touch?

Haley Takahashi  50:00

Yes. My Instagram is @haleytokiko, and my website is, I believe, just www.haleytakahashi.com. Usually DMing through Instagram is the best way to reach me, I am a Zoomer in that way. But yeah, I would absolutely love to talk to people and share stories.

Miranda Metcalf  50:31

I love it. Well, Haley, it has been my absolute pleasure to talk with you. You were a delight. And I am so happy I got introduced to your work, and I can't wait to follow what you're going to do with your wonderful self. And thank you for being so open and vulnerable and honest about your experience. It was an honor to hear it.

Haley Takahashi  50:55

It was absolutely incredible to talk to you. It's so surreal. Thank you for giving me space to share these stories.

Miranda Metcalf  51:08

I can't wait to stay in touch.

Haley Takahashi  51:10

I'm so excited. Oh, so exciting!

Miranda Metcalf  51:14

If you liked today's episode, we have a Patreon where you can help us keep the lights on and get bonus content, like Shoptalk Shorts, where our editor Timothy Pauszek digs deep on materials, processes, and techniques with past guests. Also, if monetary support isn't in the cards right now, you can leave a review for us on your podcast listening app of choice or buy something from one of our sponsors and tell them Hello, Print Friend sent you. But as always, the very very best thing you can do to support this podcast is by listening and sharing with your fellow print friends around the world. And that's our show for this week. Join me again next week, when my guest will be Johanna Mueller, artist in the upcoming Five By Five Exhibition taking place at Print Santa Fe. For more information on Print Santa Fe, you can go to www.printsantafe.org. We talk about drawing inspiration from the natural world, building a physically sustainable practice as a wood engraver, a bear burglar, and creating artistic community outside of the big city. You won't want to miss it. This episode, like all episodes, was written and produced by me, Miranda Metcalf, with editing by Timothy Pauszek and music by Joshua Webber. I'll see you next week.