Interview with KENTA UEOKA
   
 

   
   
 

LEONA : Kenta, it is a pleasure to have the opportunity to talk with you. First I want to ask you what first started you drawing?

KENTA : I don’t know. For as long as I can remember I drew.
Normally children always play with certain things, I was a child that always had a pencil or crayon in my hand and it was very natural to draw something that was a part of my surroundings or part of my life at the time.

LEONA : What did you draw at that time?

KENTA : Manga. As you know children copy comic characters for fun. I was doing that.
People admired me and my artwork and I felt good. According to my family, I said, “I will be a painter!” because of the attention I received. At that time I always read manga, more than I studied or did my schoolwork. I enjoyed it very much. Not only manga that was appropriate for my age but also comics for adults too.
Like Osamu Tezuka. You know, children don’t know much about about life when they are young. Things like love, sex and the sorrow of death, but I thought they were magnificent stories.
I think I was a cheeky child because I read of such things in those comics but in fact I didn’t know anything. I behaved like I knew a lot about the world but had no experience with things in real life. I really loved manga very much. My home was a manga library. Many kind of fellows came to my home to read them. When I became a high school student I was interested about comics with bad high school student stories.

LEONA : Now you gave a name Osamu Tezuka.
I like his manga as well. I think Osamu Tezuka is one of the greatest manga-writer of all time, his comics are like a textbook or bible. Why were you keen on his manga at such a young age? What did you think about them?

KENTA : I think I was fascinated with them because his point of view is high like god or buddha, he drew the world gigantic, Mujo (Buddhism word : means nothing. Things are never the same).
Kind of… I can’t find exactly the answer. It is because virtue or vice, about love, desire, foolishness, karma, social absurdity.
And kind of…. If you just change the point of view, the world is completely different…. I think I studied something like that.

 

 

 

 
 

LEONA : When did you start drawing professionally?

KENTA : Well… I wanted to be fashion designer first. Fashion was very powerful when I was high school student. Of course I was affected by that movement because I liked stylish things when I was little.
When I was 3 years old I cut my hair myself because I wanted to mimic the hair style of one of the heroes of a children’s program. When I knew what a pompadour style was I tried it at home with my fathers pomade. Of course none of the other children looked like that so I really stood out.
Anyway, I liked stylish things but to be fashion designer, you needed to know how to sew as well. I thought it didn’t suit me and without it it was impossible to be a fashion designer. In the meantime, I had to find out what I could do in the future and I found graphic design work.
Your looks quite characteristic, Do you have something policy of your fashion?
I told you already I liked stylish things since when I was little. I like to make myself stylish.

LEONA : You don’t mind standing out?

KENTA : I love to be outstanding. Stylish things are outstanding. There isn’t anyone, especially those who work in show business or design,  who doesn’t want to be outstanding. If they are not, they don’t go out in that way and do not get noticed but those that do are remembered.
Characteristic style is useful for it but sometimes some people may not remember me. I feel down at that time.
I think I do it because, without my original looks, I look quite normal. I like stylish and I think outstanding style is stylish…..  it’s interesting to talk about this and I can talk endlessly about it …….

LEONA : Do you like yourself?

KENTA : YES. I love myself. I can’t believe there is some people who don’t like themselves….  Of course there are sometimes  things I want that I don’t have.
Well….. I think this is just because of my parents. They brought me up to have confidence.
Especially my father. He made me free. He respected what I wanted to do. He just told me when I chose to go to high school not go to there if I didn’t intend to study. He gave me always correct advice and never denied me. I think the effect my parents had on me is very important.
 

 
 

 

LEONA : What theme do you want to draw?

KENTA : Woman. I love women.
Eroticism. Grotesque. Something people don’t like and would not decorate the room with. I want to show them, stylishly and beautifully. a different way of seeing things.
I like to express something hidden like sex. People talk about their appetite for foods but they do not talk about their appetite of sex so much. I want to do that.
I want to grope a new style of beauty.
I like pleasure. I want to have sex everyday, I want to go to the museum every day, meet fun people, listen to music, watch movies, dance, date girls, relax in a cafe, and dress-up…  I want to do only the things I want. If I could I would  express these pleasures in my own style.

LEONA : What are some of the most important things you have drawn?

KENTA : There are so many. Too many….
explore the border between porn and art.
Well simply, I want to make shocking, moving and surprising art….   but not everyone likes or understands work like this.
They want to show something they have never seen or felt. I am moved and influenced by many artists from all over the world. I want to do the same. I want to effect people and change their lives. I, myself, think my life was changed by artists.

LEONA : What type of art do you like?

KENTA : It’s the same. Impressive things and things never seen before. Flesh movement. I think art is suggestion of new values and it is important to break old values. I want to see what people feel include when they think something is not right in this world.

 
 
 

 

LEONA : Who is your favorite artist?

KENTA : So many. I have seen so many artworks and met so many artists. Well…..
Sion Sono (film director) and Kenichiro Mizuno (artist. art director) and DJ Hikaru are some of the ones that have influenced me in recent times.
Mr. Sono is a good friend of mine. He told me like this ” you put on the brakes too early. It’s ok to be only pornographic. Break yourself more.”
When I see their work they don’t put on the brakes so much. Like DJ-Hikaru, he played ” Bolero” 3 long hours until people didn’t dance on the floor anymore and they just stood there.
I like their style, they are my idols. I can’t be like them because I want to be able to make money from my works but they don’t care much about that. I feel an inferiority complex sometimes.
I am from a serous family so it effect me and I have to hold back sometimes.
And Makoto Aida. I was shocked when I saw his art because he was already doing exactly what I wanted to do.
They are eccentric and risky. Sometimes they fail but I have seen many great artists appear in the world from being challenged so I love them for what they do.
Also, I am greatly influenced by Modigliane, Egon Schiele, Yumeji Takehisa, Hans Bellmer, Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton, Alexander McQueen….  and lots and lots more.

 
 
 

 

LEONA : I would like to ask you something a bit private. Is it ok?

KENTA : Go on.

LEONA : Do you SM?

KENTA : No. For me, SM is only a style of fashion because I don’t like to get or to give pain. I have seen SM live shows but I couldn’t watch them.
Last year I had an exhibition of my work at an art galley attached to a SM club. At that time many SM people visited the galley so I met many and enjoyed spending time with them.
I always like people who can do things that I can’t, except for committing crimes of course. I have known SM since I was a teenager but somehow I wasn’t interested in it because Japanese style SM seemed too bizarre.
Years ago I visitited a new fetish boutique named Azzlo (A famous fetish shop in Tokyo in the 90′s, they were also famous for organizing fetish parties). It was one of most shocking things in my life. Was so cool and stylish. I think It was first time I saw SM western style. Since then it has fascinated me very much.
I don’t use them but I have a lot of SM goods for my paintings. Whips, ropes, cuffs, high heels… I liked SkinTwo magazine as well. Anyway, fetish was in fashion at that moment and I was effected a lot.

LEONA : Before I heard you like the word “decadence,” Please tell me what you think of it?
It’s fleeting epicureanism?

KENTA : I don’t think it is all right my aesthetic sense is not understood and I think I am a constructive person rather than decadant. That’s why I long for a decadant style and things.

LEONA : What type of woman do you like?

KENTA : I love all kinds if they are a woman I like. I used to like fashion-model type woman slim, no big boobs, long arms and long legs but these days I am aright with any style.
If you are asking abouts my type of models for my painting, I have a type. I like charismatic people. People who are brilliant just standing there.
What the interesting thing is, models talk about their boyfriends and sex when I draw them. I think their minds are more open when they are naked.

LEONA : What is your dream?

KENTA : I wish the world will be peace without wars and starving!

LEONA : YES. it's very true.
Thank you very much.

 

January 2013

 
 

 
 

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