Three questions to Yuuko Suzuki

Yuuko Suzuki (b. 1956, Japan) is a French artist born in Osaka, Japan.

Line art, direct expression of the state of mind, this has been the essence of her artistic creation since the first years of her life, as she started Japanese calligraphy at the age of 6 with renowned masters.

In 1987 she moved to Paris, where she was in charge of the Japanese art and Buddhist art workshops at the Musée Guimet from 2002 to 2011.

In parallel, the in-depth studies and rich experiences in France in audiovisual art, flourish today in her digital art.

Can you tell us more about your experience doing calligraphy and its relationship with your artistic creation later on?

Yes sure, I started the art of calligraphy at the age of 6, with a renowned grandmaster. He left me with a few words that would determine my life later on. Indeed, he told me that:

• My strokes were very powerful.
• When practising this traditional art, you should not use industrially prepared and commercialised ink. You have to prepare the ink yourself, by rubbing a stick of solid ink with water on an ink stone.
• And without saying it, he taught me that in this art you don't retrace the line you've already drawn.

In Japanese, this art of calligraphy is called ‘Shodō’, or the ‘Way of Letters’. In fact, the most important thing for me, more than the technical aspect of the art, is that this Shodō Way has helped me a great deal, in difficult periods of my life, to maintain my dignity. When you’re doing calligraphy, you're alone with the ink, alone with the line, you're not trying to look good, you're in the reflection of the ink, you're not trying to disguise a line you've already drawn as something else.

So, in all my artistic activities, the teaching of Shodō is the basis, with or without ink, this value always remains essential to me.

Does your adherence and practice of Buddhism influence the way you work?

Yes, the Buddha's teachings are precious to me, in particular the concepts of impermanence, interdependence and non-duality.

Having the right “view”, staying centred, teaches me how to live without being on a wandering path, in other words, how to be free. Being free gives me lots of ideas, in life in general and in artistic activities.

There are certainly negative and positive elements in the world, both of which come from ourselves. The Buddha's teachings and the practice of this Way lead me to reflect on humanity and the Universe, an important source of my artistic creation.

What were the biggest challenges you encountered during your journey as an artist?

In general, I don't seem to feel any challenge weighing on me. I've always had a project, I've always been curious, I've always liked working to discover the outcome.

And at a certain point, I got rid of a kind of prejudice about digital art, which was wonderful! I realised that I'd been in the dark for a long time.

“To free myself”' rather than “to challenge myself”, that seems to be my state of mind.

And I'm not forgetting that I've also had the help of a lot of people, for whom I'm very grateful.

Our top selection of Yuuko’s works