My work addresses the influence of Japan’s mystique on New York City culture; I merge kanji, Chinese characters used in Japanese writing, into highly abstracted tags that are seen in street art.
Historically, the Japanese culture contained many things that could be best described as mysterious, which defy rational explanations, even by the natives. For example, there is the combined use of three writing systems—hiragana (alphabets), katakana (an alternative set of alphabets), and kanji. The polytheistic religion, Shinto is another example. The elements of mystery are found in contemporary Japan as well. Japan’s readiness in accepting diversity of religions and cuisines from around the world, for instance, may be attributed to the fact that the people are traditionally accustomed to living with mixed existences as in polytheism. In any case, exporting the contemporary culture alone will not get the full picture of this mystique across to the outside world which is why I incorporate kanji, that is older than one thousand years, into my art to introduce the viewer to Japan’s non-rational and therefore its mysterious culture and spirit. Eventually, I hope to merge it with the New York City culture.
In street art, alphabets are painted in such abstract forms that they are hardly legible and are often more pictorial than definitive letters. The point here is to stamp the image in the viewer’s mind; it is to be seen rather than read. I believe that such abstractions are universally embraced because the visual and artistic nature of writing symbols is recognized; I certainly recognize the visual, mysterious and artistic nature of kanji. By fusing kanji with the stamping effect of ornate street art writing, I aim to soft-land the mystique of Japan on the cultures where Chinese characters are not used.
