Tell Us A Bit About Yourself. Who You Are, Where You're From, And What You Do!

My name is Maiko Kikuchi. I was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. In 2009 I came to the U.S. and since then, have been living and working in NY. Making “Visible Daydream” is the coherent purpose for my creation. Daydream—I define it as my “imagination world” that lurks in my ordinary life. The daydream consists of the elements in my daily life, so it seems familiar, but also unusual by being twisted up somehow. Collage is one of the mediums I use but I also paint, make animation, and create puppetry/object theatre to express my visible daydreams.

How Did You Get Your Start As An Artist?

If being artist means creating something to express yourself, I think that started at age of 4, as I remember. The first time I created my daydream was at my father’s old office. My father is a psychoanalyst, and he had a big wooden box filled with sand and tons of miniature figures displayed on a shelf in his office room at that time. That was there for a type of children’s therapy called “Sandplay therapy” a method by which the doctor was able to analyze a child’s unconscious thoughts by the miniature world they created with the toys on the sand landscape inside of the box. Every time I went to his office, I was so into making my little world inside of the box. They are all the elements of this real world but depending on how you place them, the world becomes unusual and that made me imagine all the different stories behind them. When it was time to clean up and we had to go home, the sand world felt like it had been a dream.

That experience influenced me not only in my creative process, but also in my daily thoughts. I often imagine, what if the elements of my daily life turned into something unreal and at that moment I felt as if I was in the world inside of the sandplay box. If I could extract the feelings of excitement and fright and put that into a bottle, I would label it “Daydreams” and start thinking of how I can share it with others.

What Do You Love Most About What You Do?

As performance artist, seeing audience reaction is one of my favorite things. I feel that I accomplished what I want to share with them when they react to what I do on stage. The only thing I miss in theatre work is that it is not possible for me to see what I’m performing in real time. When I come to an idea or get some feeling that I can’t express in words, I just want to see it with my eyes. In terms of creating visual artworks, I always love the moment when I get to see how what I wanted to see was formed in front of me.

What Do You Find The Most Challenging?

Balancing between looking at my works objectively and subjectively in the creative process is always challenging to me. When I have finished a commission project as an animator or illustrator, my mind becomes very conscious of whether it looks good or makes sense to others. I think these standards are important in order to create works especially for clients. Sometimes I realize that I bring that mindset into my own project and I close my eyes to see what I really want to make no matter how it doesn’t make sense to others. I believe both of these viewpoints are needed for creation but keeping a good balance is one of the hardest things for me.

When Things Get Tough, Where Do You Find The Inspiration To Keep Moving Forward?

This is actually relating to what I talked about in last question. When I realize I look at my works too critically, I always do some exercise to refresh my mindset. The exercise is actually very simple. It’s making a collage impulsively. I pick collage materials, colored paper to put them on and where I place those materials on the paper without thinking. I know it sounds like nothing special, but it works for me. Actually, I always do follow my feelings when I make collages, but I also choose materials based on my ideas or thoughts at the same time. So, when I do this exercise, I try not to think anything but to keep extremely follow my intuition. The collages I make in this way look nonsensical, no narrative and very random but I can see something important in it and that always helps me to keep a good creative balance.

Who Is Another Collagist You Admire Most And Why?

Max Ernst. As many people know, he is the artist who first made collage in art history but that’s not the reason why I admire him. When I first read his The Hundred Headless Woman, I was so impressed by the whole world he created in the book. They are beautiful, terrified and extremely nonsensical. It made me feel as if I was sneaking into someone’s dream. I’ve seen collages even before I saw his works and there were so many masterpieces, too but nothing gave me that huge impact I got from Ernst’s works.

Tell Me Something Unusual That Makes You Happy.

Smell of seasons. Especially I love smell of spring. It’s not something floral but more like soil, I guess. It is enchanting at night and sometimes I can smell it even before the weather gets warm. But whenever I smell it I know spring is here and that makes me happy.

I often imagine, what if the elements of my daily life turned into something unreal and at that moment I felt as if I was in the world inside of the sandplay box. If I could extract the feelings of excitement and fright and put that into a bottle, I would label it “Daydreams” and start thinking of how I can share it with others.

— Maiko Kikuchi, Artist

Anything Weird On Your Bucket List?

This sounds weird but there is a specific view that keeps popping up in my head. It’s a road through a bluish forest and I can see a tall building (maybe a castle or something) over deep fog. It might be some image that I’ve seen in book, movie or dream when I was a kid but it also makes me feel that I was actually there too. If that place exists in the real world, I would like to visit there someday.

Top Three Songs You Keep On Repeat?

Blue Diving Suit

Comet

Gradation 366

These are all by Japanese musician Yoshinori Aoki (aka: Harco). His music is full of his surrealistic sense and that influenced me so much when I was teenager and is still inspiring me. Creating the animated music video for his latest album, ”Flying Hospital”. was one of my dream jobs I have accomplished so far.

How Do You Fuel For The Day?

Starting a day with cup of coffee with my husband. Most of the time I made coffee (pour over), we both sit on couch with half-asleep heads, sometime talk and sometimes we are just quiet together. Either way it’s very peaceful. This morning coffee time is essential for both of us to get through each day.

Tell Us About Your Vision For The Future? Go Big! We Want To Root You On!

As I said, creating something that I want to see is my basic motivation for my creation. But just as I want to share food with my family and friends, I always want to share what I create. I want to share daydreams I have created with people to make them feel as if they had weird dream with me. So, my goal is to share my work with as many people as possible in entire world.

Maiko Kikuchi | @maiko_kikuchi_nyc
Artist | New York
Flying Hospital

Maiko Kikuchi Interview