Akari Fujise

WHEN I REACHED out to artist, Akari Fujise, she had a solo exhibition, ‘Giving Time’ at parcel tokyo. Upon her suggestion, we met for a conversation about her art process and she kindly explained the pieces in her exhibition.

I have to admit feeling pretty nervous about meeting Akari, since most of her work is conceptual and I felt I would have trouble grasping its meaning. However, while chatting, she put me right at ease when she pointed out that we were both primarily interested in the same thing: creativity and how ideas are born. 

Q: How did you get into fine art?

Actually, my major in university was Cognitive Science. I have always been interested in what happens when creative people make new ideas, or how ideas are born. After graduation, I worked in urban planning, because art is an important factor of society, especially in determining the atmosphere and complexities in developing a place. 

Gradually I felt the challenge of time (for developing a town takes a long time), and I wanted to reflect on my own ideas and be independent and make my own art. This led me to pursue fine art in London. It had been my dream to study art overseas so it was a dream come true.

Q: Very nice! How was your experience studying fine art in London?

I have been really fortunate to start my art career abroad. As I studied contemporary drawing, my teacher used thread to explain line and drawing. At that point, it seemed like a coincidence that my interest in cognitive science and philosophy could fit seamlessly as a subject.

Q: I peeked at your website and saw a rather complicated diagram which kind of scared me. Is that to explain your latest work?

It’s actually very is important to my practice. Before I started creating art, it helped me to organise my philosophy and I could review and renew it year by year, to help explain my work. It signifies my thoughts and also my conceptual art that tries to deconstruct the relationship between society, art and space.

Q: Congrats on your exhibition! What’s next for you and your art?

After a major exhibition like this one, I need time and space to think deeply about what direction I want to take next, and what I really want to explore.


Q: What do you do to get ideas for what’s next?

I love libraries. My favourite place is a huge library, about one hour from my home. I make it a routine, it keeps me happy and healthy. I’m currently interested in clouds as a concept, and I’m reading all sorts of material about it.

Unlike other artists who are inspired by visuals, I find that words (poetry, a novel or even a title of a book) are the biggest source of inspiration. Most of my ideas originate from words.

For instance, reading a book about physics is much like poetry. For me, it’s about exploring new areas or imaginary worlds. A desire to capture something that might not really be there.

In some sense, my interests have not changed. As I started with a background in cognitive science, I am still very much interested in the human mind: I have questions about what kind of information, the relationship between that information and the happenings in the mind and in space and in society.

Q: Do you have a favourite place in Tokyo?

Yes, Jimbocho. Starting from junior high till I was a high school student, I attended a school in the area. The teacher was known for inventing a style like salons in the past where students would read widely from different sources and write documents about it. There would be very interesting documents from Japan and also personal documents or pages from novels. It made me realize that vocabulary builds the country and creative education is important for the future. It lay the foundation for me to think about a very big question in my work: what is human creativity?

Q: What are your thoughts about AI?

I actually find it rather interesting. Just as people have always desired to understand humanity, building AI seems like a way to understand how our brain works. While the structure of AI is different, understanding AI is a good way to understand how we learn. It’s not perfect but observing AI can be a good way to understand how our brain works.

That said, I’m not sure if I want to use AI in my work. Many artists can do it but I want to think more about abstract ways of thinking about thinking. I’m more interested in the relationship between information.

Q: Congratulations on this solo exhibition! What was your process for coming up with these pieces?  

The starting point for most of my pieces is very abstract. I find it limiting and to decide the end point, I want to find the coincidences in the process, to find something new in every moment. 

For one of my pieces, I used small stones to create a circle in a public park, and photographed it after a month, after it had undergone the elements (wind, people, etc.). The result was a way to capture entropy, randomness, and passing of time.  

Similarly, with my work on washi paper making, I used the traditional technique (kamisuki) of dissolving the fibres. When I introduced thread to the layers and fibres, it triggered my thoughts about time and human minds. And it appeared to me as a visual expression of space. It became both sculptural and also multi-dimensional, like a moveable membrane. I really like hanging it suspended like this, and watching how it moves as people walk by. The human interaction creates more interest.  

As I listened to Akari speak about her art and her practice, I found myself in awe at how many of her ideas and projects are a visual expression of invisible ideas in the physical world. Through her exhibition, she reconsiders the concept of time in imaginative, inventive ways that goes beyond how we usually think of time as linear and irreversible. Thank you Akari for the opportunity, and for sharing a bit of your mind.