Interview: Chika Matsuda, 1st Place award winner in CROSSING

This is the second year of CROSSING: a graduate student exhibition that seeks the top talent from graduate programs around the country. This year's inspiring 1st Place artist (which means she receives a purchase award of $500 and she's invited to have a solo show at Richard Levy Gallery), is Chika Matsuda from the University of Arizona. Due to our respective geographies we were not able to chat in person, but I did catch up with Chika via email.


First of all, I know that you received your undergraduate degree from the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology in New Zealand. What brought you there, and what were you studying?
I went to New Zealand for studying English language. I paid tuition fee for one year, but I got bored of just studying the language, so I switched my major to Art. I really enjoyed the first year foundation program in visual art and I decided to continue staying in the program.

Your CROSSING pieces are so precisely engineered. Do you have any background in the sciences?
I do not have any background studying engineering or physics, but I am interested in the ephemeral qualities in nature. These phenomenon are the results of physics. When I was in New Zealand, I always thought about moving back to Japan where I am from, and where I cannot keep my artwork. This helped me not become too attached to things I make, and allowed me to explore non-traditional, non-permanent mediums.

How did you wind up at the University of Arizona?
In the last year at the institution, I worked with an instructor, Kate Walker who received her MFA degree from the University of Arizona. She recommended me to go to a graduate school.

I am struck by the contrast that exists between the simplicity of your concepts and the necessary technical precision with which you execute those concepts. This reminds me of your artist statement, which concludes, "The balance, which the world is based on, seems very uncertain and is a constant negotiation." Can you elaborate on this?
The reality is always in a flux. Everything is constantly changing in different levels, from physical objects to our mentality, from shifts in society to monocular level of materials. For me, the ultimate goal for human being is to find a harmonious balance between people: between ideologies, religions, cultures, races, two people, etc.

Every moment, we are making decisions and negotiating with situations that we are in.

One of your two CROSSING pieces, titled Moth, is a brilliant collaboration between projection and mechanics. How did you come up with this idea?
I found a projector at a swap meeting one day. I had the projector in my studio for a few months before I came up with this idea. I did not have film to play with, so I started to do shadow puppets with it.

I am interested in our perceptions in general. The stereotype of the butterfly is beauty. And the moth, which is the same species, is seen as ugly. I like watching bugs attracted to street lights or fire. They fly around lights and hit their bodies to the light bulbs or fly into fire. I see ourselves in them.

This work was influenced by the story, Plato's Cave. I heard this story in an art theory class. I liked the story and thought about what it would be like to not know the world outside of the cave, and also at the same time I wondered how I would know if I am in the cave.

Besides the obvious aesthetic pleasure of your graceful work with “Static Motion,” what concepts or musings would you like viewers to gain from the piece?
There is a japanese proverb, Kami hitoe (one layer of paper), which means the thin line between two different things. In “Static Motion,” paper flies away if the weight of paper is too light. The paper will not move if there are too many
layers. Harmonious balance and chaos are often side by side.

And seriously, how long did it take you to determine the airflow necessary to keep the papers floating in Static Motion?
One of my colleagues in the MFA program was taking an old fridge apart and gave me a small cooling fan. I was playing with it and thought it would be beautiful to see paper floating on the surface of a pedestal. It is a very simple mechanism, but it took a while to figure how to keep the paper nested inside the square.

My own science-oriented mind is stuck on the precise nature of your work. Do you think that science and art are similar? How would you describe your relationship with these often-distant fields?
I am always curious about why things are how they are. Science and philosophy attract me for that reason. Art, science and philosophy are not that different. They are all about perceptions of the world - only they are presented in slightly different ways.

Are there other science-oriented artists that inspire you?
Carstin Holler, Olafur Elliason, James Turrel, and many others.

Do you have any big projects or dreams on the horizon?
Right now, I am focusing on my thesis show in May 2010.

Anything else?
Right now I am in Bulgaria now for an art festival, Process-Space Festival in Balchik. I have been meeting with a lot of artists from different countries. It is historically and politically a very interesting place. I am making work responding to the place and people here. It has been a very inspiring experience for me to be in another culture and interacting with people from different backgrounds.

Thank you so much Chika. We love your work & look forward to hearing where you go next in the Art World. Hopefully you'll come show in Albuquerque! Good luck!
Thank you so much for the opportunity, Chika.


Chika Matsuda and seventeen other artists' work will be exhibiting in all four of The Harwood's galleries for the month of July. Gallery hours are: M-F 10 am - 4 pm. Evening Hours in July: Friday July 17th, 6-8 pm. Visit our website for additional information.

Note: if you are a collector seeking art from new national talents, please let us know and we will be happy to provide you with a price list.