Naoyuki Tsuji
Born in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan in 1972, Naoyuki Tsuji debuted in 1992 as an independent animator, and has regularly shown his short films in festivals such as Cannes Film Festival Directors' Fortnight and London Film Festival. A graduate of Tokyo Zokei University, he has been equally active in various other media including sculpture and illustration. From 1999 to 2005 he and Takumi Terakami hosted a yearly guerilla art exhibition entitled "Scrap Festival" on the streets of Yokohama, planting 2D and 3D art pieces at various propitious locations in the urban landscape, even being so kind as to provide self-guided tour maps for each year's festival. Since 2003 he has regularly organized film screenings with his friends, for the Iwasaki Museum and Kitanaka WHITE in Yokohama showcasing short and feature-length independent films made by local independents from Kanagawa prefecture and around the world, providing locals with a much-needed venue to see films by local artists that would otherwise remain hidden from the view of the general public. Tsuji submitted his charcoal drawing animation film A feather stare at the dark to an event of Japanese experimental film that toured six cities in France in March 2003, and thereafter Tsuji came to the attention of a member of the selection committee for the Cannes Directors' Fortnight, who was impressed enough by the film which in turn wound up getting him invited to 2004 Cannes Film Festival Directors' Fortnight. In 2005 Tsuji was invited by Cannes again for Directors' Fortnight screening of his new charcoal drawing animation Trilogy about clouds, that is, an omnibus movie consisting of three different stories of clouds. This time, he did a drawing for the festival and it was used for the official visual materials in Directors' Fortnight 2005 such as poster, flag and catalogue cover. After coming back to Japan, Tsuji did a retrospective screening in major cities including "Yokohama Triennale 2005: International Triennale of Contemporary Art" and released his first DVD from a major label called Columbia Music Entertainment, which resulted in his winning of "Yokohama Award for art and cultural Encouragement" and "Kanagawa Culture Award - Outstanding Youth Award". In 2006 Tsuji finished his latest charcoal drawing animation Children of Shadow found and supported by Aichi Arts Center. In 2007 his shorts were screened at festivals, theaters and museums such as International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands and Museum of Modern Art, NY (MoMa) .
Tsuji on his animation:
Naoyuki Tsuji made an animated film. He began by making a charcoal drawing. Then, he filmed it in two or three frames, and erased some parts of the drawing. He redrew and filmed new frames until finally he completed the film. A South African artist, William Kentridge is famous for using the same technique, but Tsuji is regarded as a pioneer of this kind of animation in Japan.
Tsuji said, "one of the main characteristics of animation created using charcoal, oil or pastel is the afterimage. With these methods it's easy to erase or draw over or add details to a previously drawn image, but the previous image never completely disappears. My method is quite simple. I sit in front of the paper and wait for an idea. When I get an idea, I draw it down and click the shutter a few times. Then I erase a bit and redraw and click the shutter a few more times, and so on. So it's random, yet with direction, ordered towards the future. I start with no set idea for the film. Each image I draw and photograph creates suggestions which lead to the next image, and these images build up inside me as the film advances. The reason I take this approach to filmmaking is to pursue the unique possibilities of this particular medium, which doesn't require any special preparation beforehand other than charcoal and paper."
Born in 1972, Shizuoka, Japan
Lives and works in Yokohama, Japan
Education:
1995 B.F.A. Tokyo Zokei University, Japan
Awards:
2007 Honorable mentions, Ann Arbor Film Festival / Children of Shadows
2005 Yokohama Award for art and cultural Encouragement
2005 Kanagawa Culture Award - Outstanding Youth Award
1997 MTV Station ID Contest Hiroyuki Nakano Prize
Public Collections:
Aichi Arts Center Children of shadows (2006 / 18 mins / 16mm)
Yokohama Museum of Art Trilogy about clouds (2005 / 13 mins / 16mm)
Yokohama Museum of Art A feather stare at the dark (2003 / 17 mins / 16mm)
Selected Solo Exhibition / Screening:
2007 Media Scope 2007, An Evening with Naoyuki Tsuji, Museum of Modern Art, NY, USA
Picture Scroll of a Fantasy Journey, Gallery Simon, Yokohama, Japan
2005 Trilogy about clouds Uplink X ,Tokyo ,Japan
Contemporary Art from ? to !, Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse No.1, Japan
2004 Naoyuki Tsuji Art Animation Uplink Factry,Tokyo ,japan
2002 Imagination - Animation - Reality, Animation by Naoyuki Tsuji, Iwasaki Museum, Yokohama, Japan
2001 Cosmology of Image, Atelier 2001, Kobe, Japan
2000 Naoyuki Tsuji Retrospective, Gallery Le Deco, Tokyo, Japan
Selected Exhibition / Screening:
2007 Picture Scroll of a Fantasy Journey, Yokohama, Japan
19th Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, Chicago, USA
Image Forum Festival, Tokyo, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Nagoya, Niigata, Sapporo, Japan
Nippon connection, Frankfurt Germany
Ann Arbor Film Festival, Michigan, USA
Animation-Adventures of "Moving Picture" Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan
Animationism, Uplink Factory, Tokyo Japan
36th International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands
2006 Media City 12, Windsor, Canada
2005 11th Art Film Festival, Aichi Arts Center, Japan
Edge in Yokohama, For Small Movies, Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan
Yokohama Triennale 2005: International Triennale of Contemporary Art, Japan
Kurzfilm Summer night, Nurunberg, Germany
37th Directors' Fortnight, Cannes International Film Festival, France
24th Vancouver International Film Festival, Canada
18th Images Festival, Toronto, Canada
49th London Film Festival, UK
Faux Mouvement Centre d'art Contemporain, Metz, France
6th Japanese Experimental Film in France, toured around 7 cities in France Art on Film, Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan
2004 9th Art Film Festival, Aichi Arts Center, Japan
23rd Vancouver International Film Festival, Canada
36th Directors' Fortnight, Cannes International Film Festival, France
17th Images Festival, Toronto, Canada Media City 10, Windsor, Canada
2003 Brakhage Eyes 2003 - 2004 - Stan Brakhage Film Exhibition in Japan, toured around Kochi, Yokohama, Nagoya,
Kobe, Sendai and Tokyo, Japan
14th Ankara International Film Festival, Turkey
New Experimental Film, from Asia, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, USA
47th London Film Festival, UK
4th Net and Film Festival, Seoul, Korea
7th Bangkok International Short Film Festival, Thailand
5th Japanese Experimental Film in France, toured around 6 cities in France
2002 Globang Film, Seoul, Korea
2001 Globang Film, Jeonju, Korea
Personal Vision 2001, Kobe Art Village Center, Japan
Art Animation in New Millennium, Nakano Musashino-kan, Tokyo, Japan
Letina 2001, Hungary
Animation Plaza, Kobe Art Village Center, Japan
1999 Scrap Festival, Yokohama, Japan (Participated 5 times until 2005)
1995 Art and Cinema Alternative, Gallery Hyakucho-mori, Tokyo, Japan
Art Animation, Nakano Zero, Tokyo, Japan
Dark Animation, La Camera, Tokyo, Japan
1992 Enoshima Rock Festival, Enoshima Tenmonkan, Enoshima, Japan