Create without thinking - the inner workings of Yoshitomo Nara

Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara recently held his “largest and most comprehensive exhibition in the UK to date” at The Dairy Centre much to the delight of both Japanese and non-Japanese art lovers eager to catch a glimpse of the famously shy artist. But as Nara hid under his cap in the dimly lit room, it soon became clear that this wasn’t going to be your usual exhibition-opening event.

Instead of talking about his work, Nara showed pictures from his holiday trips to Northern Japan and Russia, spoke about Aomori ghosts and the time he spent with Japanese university students in their messy studios, sleeping on the floor and making food on an electric stove. Nara turned down the usual enthusiastic questions about artistic inspirations and influences, and instead, presented his fans with a simple thought - “continue to create without much thinking”. A few images from his “provincial hometown”, cats and Sakhalin islands, and Nara wrapped up his almost two-hour-long talk with something that sounded like a quote from a world famous artist’s speech - “If you find what you want to be doing, it doesn’t matter where you are, you can turn every negative thing into a positive one”.

Although most of the talk wasn’t directly related to Nara’s own art, the event gave valuable insights into Nara’s work and its development. His casual, and sometimes even a little overly direct, attitude isn’t often celebrated in art and design anymore, where everything is wrapped up in sophisticated, yet sometimes quite meaningless, descriptions. Getting to know the artist just the way he is - honest, simple and almost ordinary - stripped off all the preconceptions and assumptions about Yoshitomo Nara's art. The surprising contrast between Nara’s somewhat socially awkward personality with his magically mysterious paintings left a fresh impression of an artist who doesn’t compromise his personality for the likes of the audience.

Art, photography and design are consumed fast; just like everything else in the digital world. A lot of artistic work hides the author behind a brand, a movement or a product. It is definitely worth discovering for yourself just how these ideas were born and how they developed into the wonders we see today.