Tokyo-based artist Takashi Nakamura is one of the three artists who were invited as part of the Helsinki Curious project to illustrate Helsinki based solely on their imagination and on stories they hear.
When you first heard about the Helsinki Curious project, what did you think?
“I felt that it was a very wild proposal and wondered if it was some kind of joke. It felt strange for a while, even after the project had started, but it also felt fun and fascinating. I was amazed by the drive and capability of the city and people of Helsinki that made the project possible.”
Could you tell a little about your work of art?
“I envisioned a city where nature is integrated in everyday life. Rather than creating a picture where only the city, nature, people, animals, or plants stand out on their own, I created one with the intention of drawing each of these elements as a single part of the whole. I wanted to create a picture that showed that there would be no life without nature.”
Do you think Helsinki is an interesting city?
I think it's an interesting city in that nature is abundant and normally present in people's lives. This is because I personally think that people who live in cities tend to seek excessive convenience and create new things to the point of destroying nature. In Helsinki, people are able to coexist with nature as normal, so the normality of it is what I find interesting.
What time of the year would you like to visit the city?
Everyone, especially the people of Helsinki, says that summer is definitely the best, so I would like to go there in the summer. However, I would also like to go in autumn when the whole city turns yellow with autumn leaves, or in winter when people would probably tell me that I'm visiting at the wrong time. Perhaps I’d like to do that since I grew up in a snowy region. I'm interested in seeing Helsinki during the winter, when sounds are absorbed by the snow and it’s seemingly quiet.
Takashi Nakamura, 45, is a Tokyo-based illustrator who draws by hand. Nakamura grew up in the rural Niigata Prefecture. He graduated from Nippon Design College in 1998. Nakamura creates illustrations for books and advertisements. In his spare time, he creates own original works and holds a solo exhibition around once a year. He is a three-time winner of the HB File competition in Japan.