6 THE ART OBSERVER August 2009 11 QUESTIONS FOR By Jonathan Drage 1. How long have you been painting and where did you train, or were you self-taught? Basically I’m a self-taught artist although I have taken a corre- spondence course in fine arts at the Osaka University of Arts. I did this to explore further aca- demic study, learn about current contemporary art trends and its arguments, debates and theories. It gave me a great insight for developing my practice. Of course, art is an endless learning process, however, this academic period certainly gave me confi- dence to cultivate my own approach towards the contempo- rary art, especially after receiving a scholarship in the third year. If there’s a chance, I would like to take a fine art MA course in England sometime in the future. However, when I was young I was quite an anti-academic artist in Tokyo (completely opposite to my current stance). Perhaps my background led me to that way at that time. I grew up in a children’s home, without know- ing my father at all and keeping a memory of my mother from three times in my life - aged 4, 9 and 14; the third time was at her funeral. I still remember enjoying drawing on the ground with twigs and pebbles before I was given pencils and note- books. Art was and still is as HIDEYUKI SOBUE was born in 1965 in Aichi Prefecture, Japan and came with his family to the UK in 2005. He has exhibited in both the Winter and Summer Mixed Exhibitions at Wendy J Levy Gallery and is gathering a following for his work both in sales and admiration of his thought provoking images. Jonathan Drage, armed with questions, interrupted Hideyuki in his studio. An insightful con- versation followed. natural as I am. Because of my upbringing, I once studied Social Welfare at night class, but I knew I wanted to be an artist and at 21 settled in Tokyo to fulfill my artistic ambitions. My creative practice has been evolving since then. I participat- ed in mural projects, interior decoration projects, art collabo- rations, performance projects even designing the trade mark for a restaurant owned by a celebrity Japanese actress! I curated several exhibitions and organized my solo show in Aoyama, Tokyo. But I was totally fed up with the attitude of those within the creative industries - it felt too shallow and superficial to me - and I left for London to join an artist friend living there. This was a far less produc- tive time for me artwise and I found myself looking for further and deeper meaning of life and death. I believe Art, in the strictest sense of the term, should give one a far richer experience and have unfath- omable depth for humanity. After what I call my decade of seclusion, I regained my confi- dence to return to life as an artist, slowly building up my artistic career and continue to do so up to this day. 2. I think you exhibited a lot in Japan. Is this correct? To be honest, I think dropping out of the artistic fast lane for those 10 years didn’t help me - I missed lots of opportunities, which is my only regret. However, it was necessary for me to take time out to think about art theories, conceptions, attitudes as well as my own techniques towards fine art gen- erally. However, I did organise group shows, my own solo exhi- bitions and charity exhibitions at local gallery spaces, a hospital in Nagoya and Osaka area and at the Hilton Nagoya. I had hoped to organize an exhibition in Japan this year but found it too difficult and time consuming. Japan is so far away, I’d rather focus on establishing my artistic career in the UK. 3. Do you exhibit anywhere else in the world? When I visited Florence in sum- mer in 2007, I joined the open studio course at the Verroccio Art Centre in Tuscany. At the end of the course, I participated in the group exhibition there. 4.What brought you to England? My wife is English though she can speak Japanese fluently… When we argue, we do so in Japanese and I always loose! Besides, we were concerned about our kids’ education in Japan. Here in the rural town in Northwest England, we’ve found such a lovely school where our kids have happily adapted them- selves to the new environment and enjoy their school life. Talking about the art environ- ment, I personally think that people in England embrace and value art more than people in Japan. Although Japan has got one of the richest cultural lega- cies in the world, the post-world war policy prioritized economic growth leaving behind the exploration and development of fine art and its potential while the global art trend initiative has been taken by Western countries. Now that Japan has established its fame in Japanimation, and mass production of comic characters under the name of Japanese Pop Art by Takashi Murakami and his followers, or ultimate narcissistic photographic works by Yasumasa Morimura who is said to gain some cutting-edge cross-cultural debates and so on… I’d rather take an alternative way to fill the gap between great legacy in art and contemporary under- standing, and bridge the East and West. As the only Japanese in the small town where I now live, I feel I must use this opportunity to take an objective view of both Japan and England, my Japanese identity, and develop my own practice in England. 5. How long have you lived here? We moved to Cumbria in 2005. I BELIEVE ART, IN THE STRICKEST SENSE OF THE TERM, SHOULD GIVE ONE A FAR RICHER EXPERIENCE AND HAVE UNFATHOMABLE DEPTH FOR HUMANITY HIDEYUKI SOBUE Moonlight, Sumi Ink & Acrylic