Julian Opie talks to China Post about his recent works and upcoming exhibitions.

I have around 35 artworks going right now, which are effectively focusing on the human figure. There are a few relating to landscapes, but most are centred on the human face and figure. There are some 3D works (statues), and also some which are moving/animated on computers. There are also some LED works – dancing and walking figures, which are fairly large.

The Primary Gallery was where my first gallery shows started, about 25 years ago. There is a gallery in Seoul, called the Kukje gallery, where I have a show, and I have a gallery in Tokyo called Scai, where there are various works at each. I have just had an exhibition in Seoul. I don’t tend to do art fairs. They are exciting to look around, but are not really an exhibition – more of a show.

I have worked with Alan Cristea. It’s a print and multiple gallery, so I run the web shop through them. But overall, I work with about 13 galleries around the world – they are all listed on the website.

I don’t really know Hong Kong that well, I have visited there, and seen some of the islands, and spent a little time in Shanghai.

Computers are very central to what I do, as they act as a tool or a lens through which most things pass at one point. Some works are shown on computers/LCD screens, and LED (light emitting diodes) are generally used for larger scales, and are linked to/run by a computer. Paintings and sculptures are generally drawn on a computer. They may start with a real figure or a landscape, which will then be transferred onto a computer to be put out in various ways. 

I am focusing on commissioned portraits again to a degree, in the style of Manga/Japanese animation. I am also moving towards 17th/18th century portraiture, which used to be used as the traditional process of commissioned portraits, so I quite like mimicking that in a way. I have also done a family group portrait.

I have done work on dancing and walking figures at the Royal Ballet, which was a project with a choreographer named Wayne McGregor. That was on stage earlier this year, and lots of projects have come out of that which are linked to dance. Some of these are on display in Hong Kong. Seoul focuses on a ballet dancer and human movement. This can be close up – eyes/fingers moving, or more distant – whole body moving/people walking.cI have also done some outdoor commission work, which often focuses on large moving figures.

I was reading about Hogarth – he said “true human beauty is in movement”. I don’t quite know what he means by that but thought it was interesting he thought the same as I do. Humans are always moving, and especially humans that we don’t know, we often see moving – like on the street, walking, or outdoors. Even humans that are sitting down are quite animated, so to depict humans in a realistic way we need to use movement, which is available now with computers.

Moving images was less easy, and used to be available only for films, with time stretches and a story to engage people. A painting in a gallery doesn’t need a time stretch or a story; we can include movement with just a single picture. I am not the only person to do that – Warhol was doing that but he didn’t have the computer available. I have always combined movement with non-moving images, and to a degree I have solved that now.

We spend a lot of time and energy looking at screens, and I don’t tell my kids not to go on the Internet, or watch television too much – I just tell them not to watch too many ‘screens’. They are the common denominator, and are a threat to the real world, but are also a great way of processing the world and understanding it. But I don’t confine myself to working on the moving images – often even still images contain a lot of movement.

I have spent a lot of time looking at Japanese woodblock prints from the 19th century like Hiroshige and Utomaro, as lots of their works often involve suggested movement: birds flying across the picture, people punting boats, rain falling, somebody smoking, somebody playing with a child. I have made a series of landscapes following Hiroshige’s style, and also collect his work like Van Gogh did. I set off in Japan with a GPS-guided car on the route followed by Hiroshige around Mount Fuji, where I took photos, and then put these images together.

I have always liked Japanese culture, as it is quite particular and refined, and has a certain melancholy to it. I think Hiroshige is one of the great geniuses of it. I have double computer screens that hang on the wall and show his landscapes – if you look closely you can see they are all moving, if not only small things: Clouds pass by, aeroplanes go over, water ripples, insects/birds fly around.

This adds a narrative without there being a story, and makes people slow down when looking at something. There are so many images everywhere now, and something simple moving allows one to slow down, and gives  us time to stop and listen. It allows one to focus on our surroundings and allows it to enter your consciousness. Making pictures with a small amount of movement allows people to just look, and let the art work or not work for you. There is no pressure to feel a certain way about it.

I am careful not to use the phrase ‘computer generated’, as it suggests the computer actually generated it. It doesn’t, but simply acts as a sophisticated drawing tool. It is much more simple, sensible, and is easy to copy and change. I think of digital cameras and computers more like a mirror. We can use it to record photos and information, and then take it back to the studio. Technology used to be more expensive and difficult, but can now be used as a constant feed for you. I don’t think it is further away from reality. Art is a processing of reality. It is seen by someone and thought about and processed, and then drawn by someone. It often allows us, in a strange way, to see things more clearly. Sometimes books or films are more understandable/digestible than real life.

Insight teaches us about the world through other people, whether they  are a filmmaker, a writer, or an artist, and it adds to our understanding of the world. Artists process and dream about, and complain about, and praise the world around them, and it is the results of that that what we, as an audience, enjoy. It is a tool in order to look at reality, and appreciate it.

You can use a pencil or computer, really whatever works best for you. Do, in a certain sense, what is easy, but take it to the level where it is better than you could ever expect it to be.

In the 90s, I used to copy the way computers imaged things, but did it by hand. I also used to copy romance novel covers, cartoons, and all the different ways things were depicted. It is easier just to produce them on the computer rather than by hand – retrospectively it seems a bit of a laborious method of doing it.

The older generations will probably see a computer as a sort of step away from reality, but the younger generation see it more as something to become wrapped up in, like a mirror onto the world.

Generally, so far, I have felt websites are good for information as opposed to showing artwork. I am producing a new site now and, like an artwork, it will have a theme or idea. It won’t just be a printed version of lots of my pictures. It is a means of communication and information. It is frustrating that I make a few multiples for museums, and they very quickly disappear, so it is an opportunity to make some more and have them in stock to open in my own outlet via the Internet. My outlet is for prints without edition numbers, or for posters. It is another option for getting work out there. Galleries and museums are relatively modern, and there never used to be a system like that for showing work.

It would be nice to have the show in Seoul in the Kukje gallery, so people can see that. The Lisson gallery will just be my work; I have tried once or twice before. I think it gets away from the feeling that it’s a bit of a jumble sale, as every gallery has all the artists they represent, and seeing the works you like – there is a sense of it all being jumbled up together, and I think everything is a bit dragged down by that process. Some galleries try to show just one or two artists, and it makes more sense for people who don’t know the work that well. In China, work is shown so much there’s a chance for people to catch up with it a bit.