episode forty-four | koichi yamamoto
Published 20 May 2020
episode forty-four | koichi yamamoto
In this episode Miranda speaks with Koichi Yamamoto, who is well known for his beautiful kites printed with other worldly faces. Yamamoto is a global citizen who has been taken around the world in his pursuit of art and new experiences. From Osaka to Wyoming to Poland and Slovakia, to Denmark and Canada, before landing at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville where he currently teaches intaglio printmaking. He talks about it all with a beautiful philosophy of life and art.
Transcript
Miranda Metcalf 00:27
Hello print friends, and welcome to the 44th episode of Pine Copper Lime (Hello, Print Friend), the internet's number one printmaking podcast. I'm your host, Miranda Metcalf. I release weekly podcasts with people in the print world who are doing something a bit beyond the expected, so please subscribe on your podcast listening app of choice. You can find Pine Copper Lime (Hello, Print Friend) on Patreon, Instagram, Facebook, and you can sign up for a monthly newsletter with print news from around the world at helloprintfriend.com. Printmaking forever, shun the non believers. My guest this week is Koichi Yamamoto. Many of you may know him from his beautiful kites printed with otherworldly faces. As I got to know Koichi more during our interview, I realized that he's a global citizen who has been taken around the world in his pursuit of art and new experiences. He was born in Osaka, Japan, educated in Wyoming in the United States, traveled and studied printmaking in Eastern Europe just a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, designed tablecloths in Denmark, went to graduate school in Edmond at the University of Alberta, and so much more before landing at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he currently teaches intaglio printmaking. He talks about it all with a beautiful philosophy of life and art. You are in for a treat, print friends. A quick note on the sound quality: Skype was acting up a bit, so the first 15 minutes of our interview has a really little quiet, light buzz. But don't worry, it drops out after that. So without further ado, sit back, relax, and get ready to move mountains with Koichi Yamamoto. Hi, Koichi. How's it going?
Koichi Yamamoto 02:20
Very good. How are you?
Miranda Metcalf 02:21
I'm good, I'm good. How is quarantine treating you?
Koichi Yamamoto 02:25
It's been a good opportunity to sort of re-evaluate, you know, what is the motivation for artwork? And in a way it has been very nice, uninterrupted time that I can focus on working on small plates.
Miranda Metcalf 02:39
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I know that a lot of your work can be quite large scale, are you finding that the quarantine time is getting you a little more focused on a small plate?
Koichi Yamamoto 02:51
Smaller plates, but I think I'm going to be working with a larger number of the plates. So each print's going to be relatively small, but they're going to sort of combine together to become a larger piece of work. I think that's kind of my vision right now.
Miranda Metcalf 03:07
Ah, beautiful. Well, I'd love to talk about that maybe a little bit more later, to sort of hear what the quarantine project is for you. But before we get too far into things, would you mind just letting people know who you are, where you are, and what you do?
Koichi Yamamoto 03:25
My name is Koichi Yamamoto. I teach printmaking at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. I've been teaching here in Tennessee for about 12 years now. And we have been working together with, mostly I work teaching an intaglio relief section, but as a team, as a group, with Professor Beauvais Lyons and now professor Althea Murphy-Price, the three of us. We work together to run the program together.
Miranda Metcalf 03:57
Beautiful. Yeah. So that's where you are now, but where did you grow up? And tell me a little bit about the role of art in that time of your life.
Koichi Yamamoto 04:07
I was born and raised in Osaka, Japan. And then I grew up in the '70s and '80s, I guess, and I wanted to learn the English language. And so I moved to Sheridan, Wyoming, the northern part of Wyoming, a small town. And that's where I went to high school, there. I moved there in 1983. I was 15 years old, and I was gonna be there just for a year or two. But I ended up staying there for longer than anticipated. And then I ended up finishing up high school and started studying geology at the local community college in Sheridan, Wyoming. And after that, in 1988, I moved to Portland, Oregon. And that's where I started going to the art school. At first I was interested in making ceramics, and I was working with clay and sculpture pieces, and sort of land art, I guess. Placing the clay, unfired clay, in certain locations and watching how things would deteriorate. So these are the kinds of work I did in Portland and the Oregon coast. And then I met Professor Myrna Burks. She's a printmaker. She's a Tamarind educated printmaker, and I was working for her, sponging her stone, and that's how I learned lithography. And so that was my sort of first encounter with printmaking. The Pacific Northwest, Seattle, Portland area, has a wonderful community of artists. They sort of help each other. I didn't know anything about printmaking at the time. But meeting with Mona Burkes, and also in the Portland Art Museum, they have this wonderful collection of the Gordon Gilkey Graphic Collection. Gordon Gilkey was a person, he was a professor at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon, part of the Portland Art Museum. But during World War Two, he was assigned by the US military to do a search of the artwork that was discarded by Germany during World War Two. So for that reason, the Portland Art Museum in Oregon, they have a very large collection of German expressionist prints. And also, it's not just the German work, but also a lot of work coming from Eastern Europe. Coming from Yugoslavia, Poland, the Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, and places like that. And so I got to see those graphic works coming from Eastern Europe, and that was my inspiration. That's exactly what I was interested in at the time. And in 1989, the Berlin Wall fell down, and I was still in college at the time. And I found a way to go to Poland. And in 1992, I think I moved to Warsaw there. And then decided to find a place to print, but I couldn't really find... at first I found this really obscure print shop underneath this military institution. And then there was this strange kind of sign that said "Art Club." It was in the English language. 'Art Club? What the hell is this thing?' I go down to this basement, and then I meet with these Polish soldiers. They're basically taking all the alcoholics there. They're major drunk soldiers, they're too dangerous to handle guns and military equipment. So they're staying in the basement and they're making artwork. So I ended up working with those guys for a while. It was an interesting environment. I didn't speak Polish, so our communication was basically drinking alcohol and singing a song. And somehow we communicated. But that was in 1992, about two years, three years after the Berlin Wall fell down. So a lot of uncertainty in the atmosphere in Poland at the time.
Miranda Metcalf 08:26
So I'm just so confused a little bit about where exactly it was in Poland. So was it like a military sponsored institution? Or had these soldiers just kind of found their way to the art club?
Koichi Yamamoto 08:40
No, no, no. No, this was a legit military institution. It was a part of the military institution that they create... I think it's propaganda work, is probably the right word. Because it's not just fine art. They had the radio broadcasting, they had filmmaking. And they had sculpture, even, too. There's a lot of this whole... sort of like an academy of this art in the military-backed setting. It's kind of strange. And then of course, the artwork, or the production that comes out from the institutions usually are associated with military propaganda work. The sponsored art institution, I guess. So I get to kind of see the remnants of that work. But the craziest part was that it was the early '90s, there was a war going on in Yugoslavia. So a lot of people were refugees who were coming, running away from a war, and some were the very well known artists and professors coming from the academy in Croatia, and they all come out here, they've lost their whole entire family, they're in a devastating situation, but the Polish government opened up the housing for them or the art studio for them. So I ended up in an artists union in Krakow, Poland, southern part of Poland. I couldn't go to Academy, because in order to become an official Academy student, I had to pay, and I didn't have money for it. But I could go to this artist union studio, and I paid a small amount of money, a fee, to use that and have access to a print studio. I was doing lithography at the time. And then that's where I met a lot of artists coming from Yugoslavia and Romania, and so on, and listening to their stories, it's pretty devastating. I mean, this is a pre-internet time, you know, early '90s, and so the information was rather limited. And I didn't speak Polish at the time. So all this information I'd hear on the radios, coming from broken BBC broadcasting. So that was my information source in the early '90s. So yeah, that was the time I was producing work. But fortunately, I got a dude marketing through this gallery in Portland, and so I got to sustain my living as an artist producing work in Krakow. So I would come to Oregon, back to the United States, once a year, so I'd have an exhibit and then I'd sell some work, and I'd transfer money back to Poland. And the exchange rates, the dollar was strong, and zloty, the Polish currency, was very, very weak at the time. And so the value I was making, I wasn't making a whole lot of money in the United States, but it was enough amount to have somewhat of a comfortable living in Poland. Somewhat of a comfortable living. So it was kind of my way to buy time, I guess. I was an artist, I thought about, what is the most important things? Of course, having a studio and materials and so on, but the most essential part is the time. That's the most expensive part, I think. And so that's another reason I stayed in Poland to produce artwork. And then I wasn't really thinking ahead or anything, at the time, I just needed a place to produce work and then, you know, early '90s, that was the perfect time for me to be in Eastern Europe. I mean, of course, this was a challenging place. In fact, it was a bit of the... sort of racism started picking up, because during the socialist time, they had to sort of help each other. But when the socialism ended, they would start raising their own flag, and sort of nationalism started picking up. The problem is that life is not getting any better. So easy targets, [such as] myself, go exploring and then I become a target. And so I got in a couple of incidents... I was lynched by skinheads once, and I got pepper sprayed once, and so... It's funny, you know, you kind of hear about racism, and I didn't really experience a whole lot in the United States - I'm sure there is, too - but I really experienced more of that vivid, physical threat of the racism in Eastern Europe. It was the first time in my life. So that was a bit of a scary... I ended up, once when I was in Slovakia, I ended up in the hospital. So that's another reason I just left there. So that's early '90s in Eastern Europe. But I definitely was really fascinated with the graphic work coming from it. And also, during the '80s, they had this interesting history of changing course of the Polish history without spilling too much blood, meaning that the Solidarity Movement in the '80s that Lech Walesa led, they had a sort of secret gathering together, but if they were to be too obvious about their meeting, they'd be marked by military police and then be recorded. So they had to be really subtle about their communications. So they made their posters look like a theater, but actually, the event was made for anti-socialist gathering points. So they were really creative, very crafty, about gathering of people. And we have to understand, this is the pre-internet time. So they're very still, and also the signal of the content was well communicated among the people who were unhappy with a socialist government at the time. So those people united. So it is a very, very interesting example of how visual communication can change the course of human behavior and change the history of nations, in this case. And so that's another fascination about living in Poland, the graphic histories and so on.
Miranda Metcalf 14:43
Wow. So with the posters, did you think that would there be any chance that somebody would show up actually expecting a theatre production? Do you think there was any risk of that? And find an anti-socialist meeting instead? Or was it coded just right?
Koichi Yamamoto 15:50
Yeah, I'm sure. Of course, I don't know everything about the circumstances. And that's the sort of history of it, and those kind of legendary histories have been colored up and then emphasized or exaggerated some level. So I could imagine some people would have showed up and been expecting some particular opera or theatre, and then, 'Wait a minute, that's not what we're doing here.' It might have happened. I don't know. It could have been some comical version of that. But I think that, at the time, my understanding of the Solidarity Movement in the '80s in Poland, is that people are already upset, they already had some clear dissatisfaction with socialist government already. And that's why 99% of the Polish people are sort of registered as Catholic, because as long as they're a member of the church, the government can't really touch them. And even the socialist government, they're afraid of picking a fight with the Catholic Church. So that's why the church sort of... church organization was sort of a haven for the anti-communist, anti-socialist gathering, I think. So, yeah. I could imagine some of the content had associations with Christianity content, I'm sure it was loaded with metaphors. And then they know exactly what they're talking about. So I think there's a kind of fascinating history about that.
Miranda Metcalf 17:28
Yeah. So how many years total were you in Poland, then?
Koichi Yamamoto 17:31
I was there three years in Poland and one year in Slovakia. In Bratislava. Yeah, and Bratislava was the... there was a lot of graphic work coming from Czechoslovakia - at the time, it was one country - [it was] a little different from Polish graphic. And then what happened was, this word for the Bohemian culture, I guess, there's the southern part of Poland to Austria and between that, the area of the culture, they have a lot of sort of mountain culture, I guess. You find those Chileans in Switzerland, and they kind share this similar culture, this mountaineer, "Gorale" culture, they call it themselves. And they are very industrial folk. And therefore, they have a very different sort of color, or... for instance, the Czech Republic was very, very advanced and industrial after the Industrial Revolution. The Soviets wanted to have control over the Czech Republic, but they were very strong. So Slovakia kind of maintained that. They had a little more of a voice than Poland, I think, so the graphic work that came out from Slovakia was a little more aggressive, and almost funny. There's a humor in there that I love the most. So that's kind of [where] I ended up, in Bratislava in Slovakia. It was a time [where] Slovakia was separating, they had a relatively peaceful separation, between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It's interesting to see, even the currency, they're using the same currency, the koruna, but the Slovakia side has a sticker on it. So there's somebody manually, in the bank, putting a sticker on each [piece of] money to make sure it's separate. Kind of a wild concept, but that's typical of the socialists, that kind of anecdote. Anyway, so yeah, I studied in Slovakia. That's where I learned to do copper engraving. And engraving is a medium that... there's not many people [who] do this anymore. It's slow, it's a pain in the butt, it requires very specific patience, and it's definitely not for everybody. But I was really fascinated with that, because the fact that I don't really have to use any acid, I can make it anywhere, so the mobility I was fascinated with of copper engraving. Also the mark making, too, as well. So it's more classical, and I was excited about the challenge of traditional mark making by engraving. So I learned from a copper engraver, his name is Dusan Kallay, he does the illustrations for children's books, an illustrator, and this I learned in this studio in Slovakia for one year. And I got to do some engraving and lithography. Illustration, I think, rather than printmaking. And then later on I moved back to Poland. I went to Academy in Poznan, Poland. I went to Academy there for one year. I mean, these are the times that I had no idea what [was] going to happen next year, because of the finances and all that, and I was extremely uncertain. But somehow, I just walked through this thin ice by creating, making artwork, and just looking back and thinking, oh my god, I went through this scary, scary journey. But somehow, I made it through. And I had a sponsor in Oregon, Oregon coast. So we had a contract together, and he would buy my artwork, like 20 prints. So he would sponsor me at the amount of money that I asked for. So he was quite generous to do this agreement, and was very very supportive in that way. So with these kind of people's help, I was capable of making these kinds of things happen in a place like Eastern Europe.
Miranda Metcalf 21:53
And with that favorable exchange rate, that makes such a huge difference. I know so many artists this day who are living in places, like in Thailand, one of the things the artists say is "Make dollars, spend baht," and you can live as an artist.
Koichi Yamamoto 22:10
Yeah, I wouldn't call it outsourcing, but... self-outsourcing. I'm making myself outsource by going to a place where it's cheap.
Miranda Metcalf 22:20
Exactly.
Koichi Yamamoto 22:22
But Eastern Europe is not the same anymore, of course, I'm speaking about 20, 30 years ago, so things are different. So yeah, Poland, Slovakia, and I did a lot of printmaking back there and did some illustration. And then I married with a Danish person. And then I was living in Denmark for one year and working as a designer for a tablecloth company. It's called Georg Jensen. It's pretty well known tablecloths and curtains. And I didn't know anything about textile design, but I just made a pattern and they liked it. And so I got into that business. And I worked with them for a while, did some designs for tablecloths, and so on. And it was, you know, a unique experience. But there's a funny - the reason I'm telling that is that at the time, I was learning how to make a pattern with a mirror. And that's exactly what I'm doing right now. It's funny how 20 years later, experience sort of pops up and the work I do today has been sort of planted, you know, 20 years ago.
Miranda Metcalf 23:40
Yeah. What do you mean [by] use the design with the mirror, or make the design with the mirror?
Koichi Yamamoto 23:45
Making a pattern for like a tablecloth, for instance, the image has to be repeatable. So they have a section... now, they have this fancy software, but in the old days what they had was an L-shaped mirror, basically. So try to imagine you have a piece of paper, right? And then you have a mirror right next to it. And then right above it, too. So it's this L-shaped mirror. And so anything you draw is going to be repeated and create a pattern. Can you imagine that?
Miranda Metcalf 24:19
Yeah, yeah, I can picture it for sure.
Koichi Yamamoto 24:21
You can picture it, right?
Miranda Metcalf 24:23
Mm-hmm. Almost like a snowflake or something.
Koichi Yamamoto 24:25
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, just like a snowflake. Yeah. The same concept, just using a mirror and making patterns. So that's kind of how they did it in the old days. And then I got to use their tools to make those patterns and it's funny, I've been working with symmetry image making and now I'm kind of doing the things I learned in textile design. Funny thing, how life, that is, while we are doing something, or focus on doing things, we don't even know why we're doing that. But later on in life, it just sort of makes sense. Like, wow, because I did this, that's why it sort of connected together. I don't know, sometimes I try to make sense of nonsense, but sometimes anything we do in our life... it is part of becoming ourselves, and they become useful tools, I think.
Miranda Metcalf 25:22
Well, I think that's really good for people to hear, particularly right now, when I think people are finding themselves in challenging situations where maybe they're doing things that they didn't think that they would ever need to do, and it's, again, as you're kind of on this little boat on the sea of life, you really truly never know what skills - whether literal skills, like creating the patterning with the mirror, or even just emotional skills - you pick up are gonna come serve you later on. And you'll be happy you have them in your tool bag.
Koichi Yamamoto 26:01
Definitely. Yeah, survival toolkit.
Miranda Metcalf 26:05
Exactly. Wow. Okay, so you were in Denmark, and you were doing the design there. Were you still getting to work on your prints? Were you still doing engravings during all of this as well?
Koichi Yamamoto 26:19
What I was doing... I was working, I had a press at home, so I was working with a Sentra, actually. I went to my graduate program in Canada, in Edmonton. And that was another sort of period of my life that... I mean, I was looking for a graduate program, but of course, I didn't have any money. And they came up with the funding. So that's how I ended up in Edmonton. Well, it turned out to be a really, really great program. In a way, I had both worlds, my networking with Eastern Europe and also my heart as a Japanese. And it was just a perfect match. Because that instituition, University of Alberta, they have great close networking with Japan as well as Poland. So I studied Polish. I never thought I would use Polish outside of Poland. But no, I was wrong. I was meeting a lot of Polish people in Edmonton.
Miranda Metcalf 27:14
Oh, interesting, yeah.
Koichi Yamamoto 27:15
So that was great. Yeah, you never know. So I lived in Edmonton, that was my graduate program degree, and then I finished up and lived in Denmark for a while. And I was looking for an academic job, and then I finally got one at Utah State. And I moved to the state of Utah in the year 2000, I think. Yeah, year 2000. That's right. And then moved there with my wife at the time, with my son, so the three of us moved to Utah. So that was interesting, because I love the great outdoors and going skiing, and so it was a perfect environment for me just to be able to do this kind of hobby, as well as artwork too. So it was kind of interesting living in Utah. And then I spent a lot of time in southern Utah and in the northern Arizona area, doing a lot of drawings.
Miranda Metcalf 28:14
Oh, it's beautiful there. Yeah.
Koichi Yamamoto 28:15
And particularly, because during the daytime, it's so hot, I started doing hiking in the nighttime, actually. And then once the moon's up, it's quite remarkable to see the world in the full color range during the daytime versus dark, under the moonlight, everything's in a different filter, coloration. It's a beautiful world. Anyway, so my experience in southern Utah still comes back with my work today. And then when I think about it, those kinds of landscape formats I've created, monochromic work, has a lot to do with the southern Utah, northern Arizona landscape.
Miranda Metcalf 28:56
Yeah, cuz one of the things I wanted to ask you about is that you have two really distinctive sides of your work. And they're both absolutely iconic, really aesthetically distinctive, and it's these large monotypes that are just so moody and gestural and powerful in this kind of monumental way, and then of course, your super super detailed engravings and other intaglio works. So we're touching on it a little bit, but how would you say you think you came to develop these kind of two sides with very different feels that you do also incorporate together as well, into single pieces?
Koichi Yamamoto 29:40
That's a great question. I've been thinking a lot about that. And I think about this static object is seemingly static, but it really never has been, and everything's so dynamic. Meaning that... like a geological feature of southern Utah, very raw earth surface being exposed. And so the evidence is more clear than, like, the trees and forests that covers it up, we can't really see it. But places like this high desert, the erosion is very, very clear what's going on. So the process of... the Earth has never been a quiet place. It's so constantly moving and dynamic and we're, you know, sort of lucky enough to be able to survive on this very, very limited space, I guess. And extremely vulnerable, right? To think about what's going on today. But this, with a given vulnerable condition now, I mean, we have this amazing brain to think about the power to imagine things and create things. And I mean, the indomitable spirit is something that I get excited about, about life in general, I think. I mean, do you remember when you were in science class as a kid, your science teacher would tell you, 'There's so many stars out there, there's more stars than sand on the beach,' or something. And it's like, sitting in the classroom thinking about like, 'Oh, my God, I'm so small.' But here's a small, tiny brain that we all have, but this brain can imagine and think and create and communicate. I mean, that's pretty significant already, I think. It's not something you underestimate. But yes, definitely the understanding of scale, and also this seemingly non-dynamic or static object that has a dynamic energy is something that I constantly think about, even making the artwork. Or landscapes, the large monotypes, you mentioned about that. I tried to establish sort of landscape, it's almost like a liquid, I guess. In order to understand Earth's geology, it's just easier to think that everything is a fluid. Rock in a mountain seems static, yes, it hasn't moved for a while. But of course, this is based on a human-centric perspective. But from the geological term, I guess, everything is in constant motion. Nothing is not moving. Everything's moving. Yeah, so that's kind of the [way] I think about it. And then another aspect of my work being very, very tedious and in small detail is basically the sentiment of the time, I think. And then there's a quiet, little small motion, but what happens a number of the time in the static creating, it's a more dynamic power to it. That's why I'm attracted to this small work that requires a lot of intensity to it. But also, the large monotype is a little more dynamic and spontaneous, which is a very, very different attitude of mark making. It kind of frees me up, too, actually. It kind of feels nice to make the large piece of art.
Miranda Metcalf 33:19
I can imagine. Yeah, it's sort of like a yin to the yang, almost. And that focus.
Koichi Yamamoto 33:25
It's almost - this is a fascinating thing about it - the pleasure and torture, right? Here, I'm by myself and locked myself in this studio, working on this 9 by 12 copper plate, putting all my conscious energy into this. Like, is this a pleasure or a torture? I don't know. It's fascinating. But then, at the end of the day, that gives you somewhat of a satisfaction. So I guess it is a pleasure after all. That's the kind of creature the human mind [is].
Miranda Metcalf 34:01
It is. And I think it goes back to, a little bit, what we talked about before about how in these weird quarantine days, how you need to find that balance between work and pleasure. And you have to have the work. Like, you have to make yourself work in order to have the pleasure of not working.
Koichi Yamamoto 34:20
Yeah, that's right.
Miranda Metcalf 34:21
Which is exactly kind of what you're talking about, just taking on something so painstaking and time consuming. And then having the release of the finished product and being sort of satisfied with something is that spring back of the rubber band that you're pulling, or whatever sort of metaphor one wanted to use for it.
Koichi Yamamoto 34:45
Building up the energy, I guess, the rubber band metaphor, right, which is basically building up this potential energy.
Miranda Metcalf 34:53
And so in terms of the actual imagery that you use in your intaglio works, you've got these almost seemingly endless variety of these really distinctive faces, or creatures, I'm not sure what you think of them as, but they're very expressive and unique and like a portrait. Where do those come from? And kind of, what are they to you?
Koichi Yamamoto 35:20
Well, they're a mixture of things, and I collect those sort of iconic things that are sort of ordinary, but extraordinary at the same time. So for instance, a lot of buildings in Japan, old architecture in Japan, on the rooftops they usually have those ceramic tiles with a face on it. Kind of like a gargoyle, basically, to keep the evil spirits away and that kind of thing. And also on some of the buildings the ceramic tile has an association with fish, because in case of fire, the fish can bring the water. So it's like a kind of like a mental sprinkler, I guess, having this fish on top of the building so hopefully this place will not catch on fire. And then these icons I found in Japan, or in other places, I found those ceramic figurines, found in places like Ecuador in South America. In their culture, for instance, if their family member passes away, especially when a woman has a miscarriage or something, the baby will never be born, but they will make some ceramic figurine and they will keep it in the house. It won't have a name or anything, but they're just sort of members of the family, just never been born, but we won't forget about them. So that has a little bit of kind of spiritual sort of reliance, I guess, in those kind of objects. It's kind of... not necessarily worship, but makes you feel good, makes you feel secure, I guess. You feel kind of protected or something. And then these are kind of the faces that I found really fascinating. And then even this industrial psychology, like the automobiles we buy, or the building we live in and the tools we use, they all have faces, if you notice it. If you look for it, you find it. And driving a family van looks a little more "family van" versus if you're driving a sports car, it has a meaner look to it. So they have this attitude. It's not that they have a face, we interpret it as the face because we're human. And then that's kind of how we judge things and how we... I mean, I think this is - I'm speaking a bit of a market industry. But I think it's nice to have the face so we can relate to it. That's kind of a basic human need. Maybe that's what I try to bring that sort of eyes... and then yes, even if it's not eyes, but if there is two dots, then we read it as eyes.
Miranda Metcalf 38:08
We do, yeah. I heard Paul Wunderlich, the late, great German lithographer, once answer a question about, why are you so interested in the human body? Why is it always in all your work? And he said, 'Well, I'm not particularly interested in the human body, it's just the thing that I can distort the most that people will still see as something.' And I think there might be a bit of that in what you're saying about the faces, that because we're so programmed to see human figures, to see faces, to see human or human-esque, or at least something with two forward facing eyes, looking back at us, you can play with it and really, really push it, and people will still see it as an emotional thing. Even if it's abstracted to the point of almost just oblivion.
Koichi Yamamoto 38:11
A lot of religious symbols, quite often, they use - particularly in Christianity, often you find that. Yeah, definitely. I mean, having that security and power and also this sense of trust... I think there's a lot of things that you find that sort of balance the face, maybe, I guess. When I think about it, like, I just thought about Wendy's burger logo. Because Wendy's burgers... because it's Wendy, she's there, right? And she's kind of [symmetrical], she has a face, she has freckles, she has red hair. And I mean, these are the important elements. Even the Kentucky [Fried Chicken] Colonel has a face, too, you know, when I think about it. Oh, that's the scary faces.
Miranda Metcalf 39:36
Yeah. We love having something looking back at us, and it gives us a warmth, I think. And so, you know, I'm not a nameless chicken murderer, I'm the Colonel! It makes people feel so differently about what they're interfacing with when they have that.
Koichi Yamamoto 40:20
Right. Yeah, the glasses makes the chicken tastes better.
Miranda Metcalf 40:24
Yeah, exactly. It's so friendly now. When you're speaking of the symmetry, actually, in Wendy, it reminded me that I wanted to ask you a bit about your particular technique to create them, because they are perfect and they have that perfect kind of symmetry to them. Could you speak to that a little bit? Because I think it's unusual, what you do.
Koichi Yamamoto 40:47
Okay, this is very, very straightforward. There's nothing really tricky about it. Intaglio printing, generally, uses a lot of ink. Relief printing or lithography, printing from flat surface to flat surface, the amount of ink transfer is limited. But intaglio ink is different. The intaglio plate has a three dimensional depth into it, so the amount of ink transferred to the print, to the paper surface, is a lot greater than lithography or relief printing. And you can tell the intaglio print, like even on currency, you can touch and feel the ink raised on the surface, right? So there's a physical transfer. It's not just an image transfer, it's like a physical movement. So what I'm doing is, I make the plate exactly half of the whole entire thing. So I try to imagine, if I was going to have a face, I would just do the right side of the face only. And then the center line is going to be at the left side of the plate. So I'll print the half of the face. When I'm printing, I'm folding the paper. And after I print it, I'll unfold the paper, and then fold the reverse, which means the printed side of the face becomes the inside of the paper. Does that make sense to you?
Miranda Metcalf 42:17
Yeah, definitely.
Koichi Yamamoto 42:19
Okay, so then it goes through the press again. So what happens is the image will transfer, once from the plate to paper, and [then] paper to paper, by folding the paper. And unfolding it makes the perfect mirror image. Does that make sense? It's like kind of... I can show you a video that probably makes a lot more sense.
Miranda Metcalf 42:40
Yeah, I mean, I have a little bit of foreknowledge about how you actually did it, so I feel like I'm like, 'Yeah, it makes sense to me!' But we can definitely put a link in the show notes to a video of you doing it. Because I think it's one of those things that, when it gets described, it's inherently more complicated than if you just see it being done. Yeah.
Koichi Yamamoto 43:02
Like, oh, duh, that's what it is. Yeah. Unfold the reverse folding. So that's kind of how I did it, and it works great. I tried different kinds of papers, and that's kind of the way to create that - it was interesting, I'm gonna give a little history about this method I developed. I was an artist in residence at the Anderson Ranch in Snowmass, Colorado. Beautiful place. And I was working as a printmaker, but they have this wonderful ceramics studio and I got to use the wheel. So I spent more time working the clay and then sitting on the wheel making pots and cups and so on. And watching the rotation of clay, looking from above, and I thought about, well if I could rotate the plate, not horizontally, but vertically... so that was kind of [how] my idea of the transfer reflection print sort of came out. The idea of the sort of three dimensional rotation and the vertical rotation of the plate image. That was kind of the idea to fold the paper to make the symmetry image.
Miranda Metcalf 44:18
And now, you've been talking about kind of the faces that you've been making and how you get them there with that folded paper technique, and now people have been seeing the maybe up in the sky recently? They've left the studio, they've gone off paper, as they say, and you're creating kites. I'd love to hear you talk about how you came to do that and the process of it.
Koichi Yamamoto 44:45
Yeah, this has been sort of my passion idea. You know, I ask myself, why do I do [this]? Why do I make a kite? And so on, so on. And I was looking at my drawing and thinking about the fluidity of the line form. Sometimes I kind of create this drawing [and] the series of lines almost looks like a school of fish creating a large form. And I think about [how] these are devices to describe a form, as well as it's a sort of fluid motion, aerodynamic or hydrodynamic, anything that sort of flows like water or flows like air. I think these are the types of things I was drawing. And when I was in a graduate program in Canada, a lot of my work has a lot to do with the landscape of the Scandinavian German bunkers, for instance, and the clouds and the water, and those natural elements, I was having more fun carving out these kinds of elements rather than the bunkers and the concrete structure itself. And so these drawings had a lot to do with the fluid movement, and then making the kite was like a sort of perfect idea actually to understand the aerodynamic with a very minimal amount of gear. And in the beginning, I was making a paper airplane, actually. So that's kind of how I started designing things. And then later on, I tried to do more sophisticated design, and then I started sewing a lot and did more... the type of kite I was making was the no structure kite, which means the air will inflate by itself and create shape with pressure from - it's kind of like a wind sock, I guess. If you can try and imagine that. So I will sew a bunch of these sections and then put them together and then let the air go in, and it will fly by itself. And so that was kind of tied with the idea of the kite, I was doing it not with paper, it was mostly ripstop nylons and ropes and string. So that was kind of the initial idea. But after I [started] studying more about kites, I kind of ran into this hexagon kite, it's called rokkaku kite, it comes from Japan. And this is an incredible kite. I sewed different types of kites and designed my own, but this simple hexagon kite is just so stable, so predictable and easy to make, and it doesn't require a whole lot of material, and most importantly, easy to travel with. I can just roll it up and pack and then go. And so I was like, 'This is a perfect design for the kite.' And so I worked together with 40 different artists. I invited 40 different artists to make a kite with me. So I gave them Tyvek material. And so they will print or draw or paint or anything you can do, and they will ship to me and I will sew them together, put the carbon fiber rods behind it, and then make a kite. So we were going to fly these kites in Puerto Rico for the Southern Graphic (SGCI). That was supposed to happen last week, but unfortunately, with the current conditions, that didn't happen. But the irony of this is that I made a kite and I shipped the kite, and a day after I shipped the kite, they announced the cancellation for the conference. And so now they have my kite! They have it, it's in Puerto Rico right now.
Miranda Metcalf 48:41
Yeah, they're getting to live a little bit of the life that we all hoped that we'd be living right now, or last week. The kites get to be there.
Koichi Yamamoto 48:50
Yeah, the kite is there. And I think what I love about the kite making is the - well, of course, there's a physics challenge to it - but once I understand the balance of the physics, it becomes very easy. And yes, definitely putting out work outside a studio or gallery and just flying it in the air, and also, when I fly them together with a bunch of different kites, they start to interact with each other and become very animated. And again, I was kind of talking about dynamic and static, and the static piece of paper with the Tyvek plastic become sort of living things in the air. And definitely this is an exciting kind of moment, to see the artwork in the sort of natural setting, I guess. Most recently, I went to Wyoming. I was in a place called Bighorn Mountains. And there's a snow field up there, about 10,000 feet above sea level. It's very flat, and it's got great wind there. So I flew the kite there. It's a lot of work, especially planting a kite in a higher altitude like that. And that was a challenge my lungs, definitely. But it was a good experience.
Miranda Metcalf 50:10
So when you're in the process of taking kites and your art and taking it out of that gallery setting, and into the world, and into the wild, do you get a lot of interaction from civilians? Do people come and let you know what they think? How is the public reception?
Koichi Yamamoto 50:33
Yes, I love it. Especially, I think, definitely kids, I think they're brave, they're curious, they want to come check it out. And then they take photographs and they quite often interact and ask questions, like, 'What is this?' And I think whatever they get out of it, they will take a photograph and they'll probably put it up on their Instagram, like 'Hey, look, Mom and Dad, at what I saw today.' But these kind of... within this story, there's something that they will remember, like, 'Wow, I saw this strange guy flying a bunch of kites in the middle of nowhere.' In a totally unexpected place, a snow field in northern Wyoming, or a desert somewhere. It's sort of, when I think about it, like Robert Smithson or some of those artists that have done that art, they'll place it in a location that is really, really hard to get to. So kite flying is kind of becoming like that too. And again, it's so easy to travel with this kite, and it's lightweight, and so I can go to different locations and fly the kite as long as there is a wind there. So that's kind of how I've been trying to sort of justify going to different locations, flying the kites, I mean, winds are pretty much the same anywhere in the world. But under the different lights and different sky, the kites look slightly different.
Miranda Metcalf 52:06
Well, I was wondering, because I've seen really just beautiful documentation of them at beaches. But you know, Knoxville isn't particularly close to a sandy beach, is that correct? I mean unless there's like, I don't know, like a great river bed there that I don't know about.
Koichi Yamamoto 52:26
Yeah, in fact, there is not a beach, but there is, it's called Cherokee Farm. It's a part of a university agricultural farm. And that's a nice place to fly kites, a very flat grassy field. And it's a good place to... I got to watch out for the dog poop. But otherwise, it's a nice place to fly a kite. But you're right, it is far away from the beach. And one of my favorite places is the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Just great wind, uninterrupted wind, and predictable wind, great place to fly kites. And most recently, I was in northern Wyoming in Bighorn Mountains. And last December, I was in Sicily, in Italy, a place called Lo Stagnone, which is the very West End of Sicily where they make salt, I guess. And then they have great wind too. So I kind of go into places like that just the fly the kite with the landscape, you know. Just kind of my own satisfaction of flying the kite. Travel [to a different place in the] world and then fly there, it's sort of kind of my personal project in a way. The good thing with flying kites... it's therapeutic. It forces me to look up at the sky. And then when I look at the sky, the little tiny problem becomes so insignificant. In other words, it's a healthy mental activity.
Miranda Metcalf 54:05
Yeah, I didn't even think about that aspect of it. But of course, that makes so much sense, because you're out in nature and in a big open space, and you've got an activity to keep you occupied. But it's not a stressful activity. Yeah, that's so beautiful.
Koichi Yamamoto 54:24
Yeah, it is. It's a nice activity. And then sometimes when I fly eight kites at once, that's a lot of work. I'm running constantly. So that's a cardio workout.
Miranda Metcalf 54:37
Beautiful. Well, before we run out of time, I do want to circle back to what you talked about just at the very beginning, and landed on a little bit of a teaser about the current project where you're using lots of little plates, but you're thinking about combining them. What's on the horizon there?
Koichi Yamamoto 54:57
Well, I'm kind of trying to utilize this quarantine time just being away from my studio - well, I guess now I'm kind of trying to establish a small studio, so the work's got to be a lot smaller. So I will have these intaglio prints, a bunch of them printed on the gampi paper. And then I will make the kite, but it's going to be a lot smaller kite in a way, I guess. And the kite's like a sculpture, basically the paper with bamboo, basically, that's what it is. And then having a bunch of them - I'm talking about maybe hundreds of them - so they will interact together and become a sort of installation piece. That's kind of my vision right now. Sort of like a school of fish. That's kind of... there's a word for that. Mermulation. That's it. That's the fancy word for it.
Miranda Metcalf 55:03
Okay. Mermulation. Yeah.
Koichi Yamamoto 55:19
Mermulation.
Miranda Metcalf 55:38
That sounds wonderful. I guess in that case, just to kind of close up, would you let people know where they can find you and see your kites and kind of stay up to date as things progress, as we're all keeping in touch digitally with each other more than ever before?
Koichi Yamamoto 56:15
I mean, pretty much I've been utilizing my website, as well as the Instagram. Instagram is a lot more direct and swift. So I think that's what I'd like you to take a look at, you can look under my name on Instagram, I think that's probably the place to find me.
Miranda Metcalf 56:31
And that's just your first name, Koichi, and then underscore, Yamamoto. Is that correct?
Koichi Yamamoto 56:38
Yep. @Koichi_Yamamoto. And I think it's easy to find me that way. Yeah, I've been making a lot of videos and then uploading them to Vimeo too. So I'm gonna connect that together with my website so all the information will be centralized.
Miranda Metcalf 56:58
I can definitely put links to everything in the show notes to this episode. And thank you so much for chatting. This has been absolutely delightful.
Koichi Yamamoto 57:09
Thank you, Miranda. Yeah, this was fun, especially while I'm talking to you, the sun was setting, now it's become dark. So it was a interesting transition from the sunset to the evening. So now I see these purple skies, and yeah, evening's start.
Miranda Metcalf 57:28
Yeah. Well, I'm glad that we could get to chat the evening away, and the early morning here.
Koichi Yamamoto 57:34
Thank you.
Miranda Metcalf 57:35
Yeah, thank you so much. I'll be in touch.
Koichi Yamamoto 57:37
Yeah, good luck with everything. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to talk about my artwork, and I appreciate your passion for this, the love of the craft, and that you're focusing on it, and we need more people like you. I really appreciate that.
Miranda Metcalf 57:55
Thank you. Thank you so much. Let's definitely stay in touch, and hopefully we can connect in person at SGCI next year. That's probably what it's - or it's looking like it's going to [be].
Koichi Yamamoto 58:08
We'll survive. We'll survive this thing.
Miranda Metcalf 58:13
Well, that's our show for this week. Join me again next week when my guest will be Carlos Barberena. We talk about his childhood during the revolution in Nicaragua, selling drawings to tourists on the streets in Costa Rica, finding his voice in political printmaking, and so much more. This episode, like all episodes, was written and produced by me, Miranda Metcalf, with editing help from Timothy Pauszek and music by Joshua Webber. I'll see you next week.