Artist Misaki Kawai completely charmed us when we met her at her recent exhibition in Stockholm. She's got those big black, wild animal eyes and has this frailness to her that just makes you want to tuck her in bed and feed her muffins. She wears sweaters with little squirrels on them and prints her own money (Beaver Dollars) that she slips into friends' wallets when they're not looking. She even makes coins. CUTE. She's been exhibited all over, which isn't the least bit surprising since her art is absolutely irresistible - intentionally naïve, funny, simple and refreshing, trademarked by meticulous, nutty details, great colours and unconventional materials…Besides paintings and collages, she builds installations creating her own, fantastical worlds with sculptures of herself, friends, idols and cute creatures in fuzzy allegorical interpretations of everyday life situations. She once built a humongous spaceship installation. When she told us it took her over four months we weren't surprised as we could spend hours just looking at all the details.Vice: What's this?
Misaki: It's a restaurant… Octopus restaurant.It looks like an ice cream parlour.
They have ice cream… inside the restaurant. Vanilla, strawberry, chocolate and green tea ice cream. No "fancy fancy" ice cream, because it has to be cheap. It's fast food, but it's good.Do they serve octopus? It's not on the menu…
No, they serve hot dog, hot dog with cheese, double hot dog and rice burger.But why not octopus?
I don't know… I like octopus.OMG, there's even a little trash can with mini trash in it! There's even a noticeboard! What does it say on the little notes?
The people who visit the restaurant leave little notes and sometimes autographs. That's The Beatles. They left autographs. But George is not here, he is late.I don't think you like George.
I like George! You know what, in my house, in my living room I have a statue this big of a wave with George doing surfing with guitar. I'm a big fan of The Beatles. People make T-shirts of Beatles if they are big fans. I make sculptures of them instead.So where is your house?
In space. Far away.I meant like where you actually live…
New York. I moved there almost four years ago. A guy I met in LA told me I had to go to New York if I want to make art. When I went back to Japan I decided that at least I should go and see what it was all about. So I went there all alone for 3 weeks. I didn't even know anyone there. That's when I met Gary who has a gallery and he said I needed to be in the US to work. I don't really like New York. People there are too crazy. A lot of evil people. Maybe they have too much stress in their lives and no nature and no health insurance. Those things make people crazy. The health insurance situation is crazy. I heard about this gallery where they tried to get health insurance for each artist, like it was a regular office job. That makes sense to me. But America is crazy.Would you rather live in your own world or in the real world?
My world is kind of crazy too. But at least it's not evil. Everyone is happy, sometimes sad, maybe sometimes mad but not like… crazy like New York people. When they are sad they cry but it's going to be OK. They're not going to be sad all their lives.When did you start building your own worlds?
When I moved to New York. Before I went there I didn't know installation or contemporary art even existed. In Japan people don't know that being an artist is a job. There are so many great artists there that never show their work anywhere. It's very sad. So I try to have them come over to NY, stay at my house and take them to shows. That's kind of all I can do right now.Since I was a kid I've always been making stuff. In high school I had to decide what I wanted to do. I didn't know I could work as an artist, so I was going to be an animal doctor, but then I found out there was an art school so I went there for two years.What's art school like in Japan?
My school was very different from other art schools. We basically got to do whatever we wanted and once a month we would present what we had made. I remember this girl who was always quiet and a bit strange. Nobody knew what she was thinking. One day she brought a bowl of instant noodles that she had left standing for four days so they were all big and puffy, and that's what she presented to the class. They let us make ANYTHING.It was a great thing for me because I learned to just start something and see how it turns out. When I do big scale things, I make a sketch, but in the end it never turns out exactly like the sketch. I collect impressions everyday from books, magazines, movies, walking around the city and I always take pictures with my digital camera. But I don't know anything about art history. We have a saying in Japan: "Keta Uma" — bad skill but good sense. Basically, it means that skills are not important to make art, the important thing is the sense. I agree, if you have good skills but bad taste, the painting will be very bad.Also, I think art is a lot about balance. Like just cute is not good, not interesting. You need to put in something like a gun maybe.MILÈNE LARSSON
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Misaki: It's a restaurant… Octopus restaurant.It looks like an ice cream parlour.
They have ice cream… inside the restaurant. Vanilla, strawberry, chocolate and green tea ice cream. No "fancy fancy" ice cream, because it has to be cheap. It's fast food, but it's good.Do they serve octopus? It's not on the menu…
No, they serve hot dog, hot dog with cheese, double hot dog and rice burger.But why not octopus?
I don't know… I like octopus.OMG, there's even a little trash can with mini trash in it! There's even a noticeboard! What does it say on the little notes?
The people who visit the restaurant leave little notes and sometimes autographs. That's The Beatles. They left autographs. But George is not here, he is late.I don't think you like George.
I like George! You know what, in my house, in my living room I have a statue this big of a wave with George doing surfing with guitar. I'm a big fan of The Beatles. People make T-shirts of Beatles if they are big fans. I make sculptures of them instead.
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In space. Far away.I meant like where you actually live…
New York. I moved there almost four years ago. A guy I met in LA told me I had to go to New York if I want to make art. When I went back to Japan I decided that at least I should go and see what it was all about. So I went there all alone for 3 weeks. I didn't even know anyone there. That's when I met Gary who has a gallery and he said I needed to be in the US to work. I don't really like New York. People there are too crazy. A lot of evil people. Maybe they have too much stress in their lives and no nature and no health insurance. Those things make people crazy. The health insurance situation is crazy. I heard about this gallery where they tried to get health insurance for each artist, like it was a regular office job. That makes sense to me. But America is crazy.Would you rather live in your own world or in the real world?
My world is kind of crazy too. But at least it's not evil. Everyone is happy, sometimes sad, maybe sometimes mad but not like… crazy like New York people. When they are sad they cry but it's going to be OK. They're not going to be sad all their lives.When did you start building your own worlds?
When I moved to New York. Before I went there I didn't know installation or contemporary art even existed. In Japan people don't know that being an artist is a job. There are so many great artists there that never show their work anywhere. It's very sad. So I try to have them come over to NY, stay at my house and take them to shows. That's kind of all I can do right now.
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My school was very different from other art schools. We basically got to do whatever we wanted and once a month we would present what we had made. I remember this girl who was always quiet and a bit strange. Nobody knew what she was thinking. One day she brought a bowl of instant noodles that she had left standing for four days so they were all big and puffy, and that's what she presented to the class. They let us make ANYTHING.It was a great thing for me because I learned to just start something and see how it turns out. When I do big scale things, I make a sketch, but in the end it never turns out exactly like the sketch. I collect impressions everyday from books, magazines, movies, walking around the city and I always take pictures with my digital camera. But I don't know anything about art history. We have a saying in Japan: "Keta Uma" — bad skill but good sense. Basically, it means that skills are not important to make art, the important thing is the sense. I agree, if you have good skills but bad taste, the painting will be very bad.Also, I think art is a lot about balance. Like just cute is not good, not interesting. You need to put in something like a gun maybe.MILÈNE LARSSON