– What was the basis for chosing the displayed pictures in the Kyôto exhibition?
K: The subject of the photobook ‘Shikkaku’ is myself, so for the exhibition I picked each photo to show a different view on the world as best as possible. Since they were presented in a space that reflected my hometown Kyôto, I took things like lights and even background music of the venue into consideration and chose 14 pieces. In particular talking about the image ‘Shikkaku’, which became the cover picture, I arranged it near the entrance, at a very eye-catching place, to express the essential point of that venue.
– Also the title originates from that photo, right?
K: I guess this was at the last shooting. It was the very first picture taken. The instant I saw it I thought to myself this looked like the face of a disqualified person, so at that time I saw it right away as the image for the photobook’s cover and decided on the title ‘Shikkaku’. Whenever people, including myself, are facing new challenges they tend to contemplate about what comes after that challenge. The more we think about this the more anxious and helpless we feel. For instance in my case, there are moments when I doubt my ability to do photoshootings. I’m thinking that if I know nothing about how to take pictures [properly] or about the setup of a camera, then the whole thing kind of appears unreasonable. But still, I don’t get nowhere if I don’t take up new experiences. When I had this thought, we were on tour overseas and I just picked up a camera and tried taking pictures to kill some time. From the moment I managed to capture my own feeling, my own heart into one picture, I thought that this isn’t so bad. It’s not that I’m very skilled at studying and in general I’m quite the opposite type of man, that people would call successful. But even for those people like me, it’s important to make that first step into something new, even when someone tells us otherwise, it’s fine as long as we carry our own beliefs and really keep true to ourselves. Even from the standpoint of ‘disqualified’ people, they as well move forward by starting something new. So the title is ‘Disqualification’, but in the sense of a positive disqualification.
– It’s a word that holds a meaning.
K: Human beings would hide those things they are not good at. Because they probably think that those were useless things and so in a contrary manner they would [eventually] drop the subject. [1] That’s why even those useless people are able to take the first step forward in doing challenges. And by that [new] opportunities will arise and you know you can look forward to it.
– Both, photobook as well as the exhibition have some beautiful black and white pictures.
K: We used a printing technique called Fresco Giclee. [2] The fresco technique of the Renaissance has been revived by a new technique into printing and it gives a steady black color when printed. [1] In respect to photographies I like a basic monochrome, so this time it was important to me to work with black and white. I also opted for a type of paper, that can display vivid colors. Both photobooks turned out quite nicely.
– Any future plans for solo projects?
K: I have countless challenges as ways of expressing myself, that I want to try out. Even when I talk to my staff we have plenty to discuss. If I was to try and complete everything that I wanted to… well it’s like even a single project might take years (laughs). I can’t say anything in concrete terms yet, but since they let me start this solo activity, I cannot stop to express myself as ‘Kyô’. But I am also ‘Kyô from DIR EN GREY’ and it works, so as long as it does not overlap with the band’s activities and releases.
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Keep in mind ‘Shikkaku’ means ‘Disqualification’.
TN:
[1] not so sure
[2] Examples and further explanations for Fresco Giclee are here
credits: ageqoudagis.wordpress.
