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Screening Committee Members Comment for DCA2007 |
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Nobumichi Tosa
President of Maywa Denki |
| Overall Evaluation |
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| We have been holding this contest for many years now and have acquired regularly participating contestants as well as new faces, and this year seemed like a battle between them. It's just like in boxing when a newcomer challenges an older, more experienced boxer who is getting ready to retire, but the veteran refuses to quit. He manages to give it his best one more time and wins! That's what it seemed like this time round. |
| Review of Award-winning Works |
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*Grand Prize
It is Atsumi Kurotaki's third competition, and she has battled it out.
When I first arrived at the screening venue and had a look at her entry this year, "Singing Maman & Ladies," I immediately saw that this was going to be the Grand Prize winner. The reason is that, while her previous two entries gave the impression that she was doing it as a "hobby," this time she produced "art." A twisted sense is beginning to emerge from within her work, and it has become more interesting. She is no longer seems to be a mere illustrator, but has developed into a full-fledged artist. For me, watching a person develop over a long period like this is one of the most intriguing aspects of this contest.
On a personal level, I liked the little dog and frog in Ms. Kurotaki's entry this year. The detail is superb.
*Excellence Award
Shigeru Saitoh's "The wind of sai-four seasons-4-Series" on the theme of "Color, Brilliance, Vividness :  " has the appearance of something that might have already been created in the past, yet is actually quite unique. While this type of work is usually created by "rendering light" on computers, conventional methods tend to use transparent water colors. Mr. Saitoh's entry, however, seems to use gouache, prepared with an overlaying of transparent watercolors, and are extremely beautiful despite being so clearly contrived. It was very refreshing. At 69 years of age, Mr. Saitoh is certainly hanging in there like an old boxer!
When I saw the entries under the theme of "Laughter, Smiles, Happiness, Joy : ," I acutely felt on the whole that the "laughter" was spastic or paralytic. I had expected to see more nihilistic snickering or gleeful giggling, but the entries on this theme branched off into the world of the bizarre. Among the entrants, I note that Shikuri Uraji, who at 42 years of age has won the Excellence Award for "Laughing Boys' Choir," is part of what might be called the YMO generation (from the name of a popular music group). YMO had an album called "Zoshoku" (Proliferation), and this image looks just like the cover of that album, with a multitude of models representing the three members standing in formation. It is interesting since it conveys a sense of the techno generation. The composition of the image was also quite fine.
Under the theme of "Create, Construct, Manufacture : ," Kiyoung An's prizewinning works "Portrait 1, 2, 3, 4, 5" seemed to focus on the interpretation of the word "creation." I thought the method of creating the image by directly scanning parts of his own body was similar to the shadowgraphs of long ago. There is a popular shadowgraph group called Kansarokka that came to Tokyo, and I felt that it also appeared to be both old and yet very new. Now that Mr. An has had his own fingerprints taken so thoroughly he cannot commit any crimes, can he!
His techniques are very interesting and could be applied as is at workshops for children, so we may see them become more widespread in the future.
*Special Encouragement Award
To put it briefly, I felt "Life is beautiful" by Tatsuya Uchida still had a "prep-school touch" to it. This sounds harsh, but my thoughts are that he has already mastered the rendering of an ordinary piece of art, and what he ought to do is break the image down once. It is not a bad image, nor is there a problem with the theme, but the artist is in a sort of slump. That is to say, it is as if he is climbing a mountain and has come to a plateau, but from there he doesn't know where to go in order to continue his ascent, so there is an empty sense of having arrived. I am saying this, or course, because I have hope for this artist.
*Maywa Denki Award
Mikan Bako's "NecotoSakana" presents a story with really cute characters, and if one looks very closely, it has been very skillfully rendered. The image itself is somewhat fanciful, like a scene out of a computer game, but we can feel an empathy for the way it has been developed beyond that, as if heralding a brave new world. Simply put, I thought it was nice in its cheerfulness. |
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Saori Kanda
Artist |
| Overall Evaluation |
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| I wish to thank all of the many entrants who submitted works on the 2007 themes of "Color, Brilliance, Vividness : ," "Laughter, Smiles, Happiness, Joy:" and "Create, Construct, Manufacture : ." Works which stood out in terms of imagination with regard to the theme, degree of mastery of expressive skills and originality of perspective made it to the final round of screening, and after very hard deliberation by all of the Screening Committee, we finally arrived at this year's results. What was interesting was the unexpectedly large number of works with paradoxical interpretations of the themes, such as works expressing "Color, Brilliance, Vividness : " in monochrome and "Laughter, Smiles, Happiness, Joy:" works with deep, serious viewpoints, not conducive to laughter. It was a shame that these works didn't win awards for expressive technical ability or originality, but we look forward to future entries which take on the challenge of interpreting the themes from original points of view. The Screening Committee considers the artist's comments on their own works important (there are many cases in which we make decisions on awards based on how well the picture matches the theme). We look forward to the detailed explanations of the concepts woven around their work. |
| Review of Award-winning Works |
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*Grand Prize
Atsumi Kurotaki has participated in this contest for several years now, but everyone on the Screening Committee was surprised at how different this year's piece from her previous works. "Singing Maman & Ladies" combines insights brimming with originality right down to the last detail, with technical ability and an eye for color that express these ideas freely. The skillful blend of all these elements won her the Grand Prize. What was most appealing about Ms. Kurotaki's picture was that it spoke of the joy of art. The style of "Singing Maman & Ladies" bursts with a unconstrained sense of color. I am secretly looking forward to the opening day of their boutique.
*Excellence Award
"The wind of sai-four seasons-4-Series" on the theme of "Color, Brilliance, Vividness : " by Shigeru Saito attracted attention, standing out from the other works focusing on the beauty of colors. You can feel the gradual transition of time, bringing with it the impression of a beautiful melody. Simplicity of technique in a piece tends to render it uninteresting, but Mr. Saitoh's work is filled with translucency and has an appeal that one could look at indefinitely without becoming bored.
On the theme of "Laughter, Smiles, Happiness, Joy:," "Laughter's" neighboring emotions of "Rage" and "Sorrow" featured in Shikuri Uraji's "Laughing Boys' Choir" touch the viewer, making people feel the essential nature of laughter itself. The five-picture structure gives the piece a wonderful tempo. The title and sense of color are also exquisite. Surreal giggles penetrate the heart even more deeply than belly laughter, so it is a hard picture to tear oneself away from.
There is a tendency to develop the theme of "Create, Construct, Manufacture : " as if constructing a building, but Kiyoung An, who won the Excellence Award for the piece "Portrait 1, 2, 3, 4, 5," turned his attention to "the body" as the basis of creativity, and found an excellent way to express it--creatures with somewhat amusing shapes. The viewer turns his attention to these strange shapes and approaches them. Then he realizes with a start that all of their body parts are human, just like his own. This work makes us reflect on humans as creatures once again, so this work stands out conceptually.
*Special Encouragement Award
The Screening Committee had their work cut out deliberating on "Life is beautiful" by Tatsuya Uchida. The artist expressed "Color, Brilliance, Vividness : " through the medium of ordinary everyday scenes. The entry depicts many flowers blooming in a meeting room, and wilted people slumbering on the train home. His ideas are interesting and the degree of mastery is very high, but what caused the Screening Committee to hesitate was that the creator was too stuck on the idea of having humans with blossoming flowers as heads. I think that Mr. Uchida can develop a more deeply original work by utilizing his skills. We are giving him the Encouragement Award in the hope that he will try taking a broader perspective on themes in the future.
*Saori Kanda Award
"Live" by Hideo Ikawa is an appealing work with an original structure, delicate portrayal and high degree of mastery, but we couldn't feel the connection to the theme of "Create, Construct, Manufacture : ," so it did not meet the requirements for an award in that category. However, we highly regard the power of artistic expression in Mr. Ikawa's work, so we selected him for the Saori Kanda Award this time. |
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Norihiko Saitou
Senior Vice President (Member of the Board)
Chief Investor Relations Officer |
| Overall Evaluation |
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I feel the entries in this contest are becoming more diverse and varied each passing year. It is as I trusted and believed with all my heart: there is proof that computer graphics is with certainty becoming a new art form.
Each of the entries is so wonderful that it was difficult to say which was better, and we screened them with the feeling that it was very hard to judge and select winners. In viewing and evaluating many of the works, I think uniqueness, that is, originality of the work's concept or the creativity involved, is a key point. The techniques used in expressing the concept are also important, but you can use diverse techniques in computer graphics, so deciding whether a particular technique is appropriate or not to express the concept is another key point, I think.
Techniques that suit to the concept will have a strong impact on the viewer. It was with this in mind that I made my selections. |
| Review of Award-winning Works |
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*Grand Prize
We selected "Singing Maman & Ladies" by Atsumi Kurotaki for the DCA2007 Grand Prize. I think this is the third time Ms. Kurotaki has participated in the DCA, and year by year, I feel that her power of expression has steadily gained depth and she has made progress. In particular, in her entry this year on the theme of "Color, Brilliance, Vividness : " showed highly refined use of color for the clothing and hair of Maman and the ladies, in addition to the delicate rendering of the lace's translucency and artistic detail of the many accessories were splendid.
I was moved by the lovely phantoms (sorry, I mean fairies!) floating against the lacquer black background.
The Screening Committee was unanimous in its selection of her work for the Grand Prize.
*Excellence Award
Although the many entries on the theme of "Color, Brilliance, Vividness : " meant that the competition was fierce, from the point of view of the Screening Committee, it was really enjoyable since there were many excellent works and such a diversity of bright colors and patterns.
Shigeru Saitoh's "The wind of sai-four seasons-4-Series" used horizontal lines to divide the screen into upper and lower parts, which I thought was really impressive--a work that really evokes the feeling of the "winds of the four seasons." Mr. Saitoh seemed to reject the conventional colors of the four seasons to produce a fantasy filled with translucency, using beautiful colors for the four seasons that were refreshing. I thought it really deserved the Excellence Award for this theme.
Shikuri Uraji's "Laughing Boys' Choir" was selected for the Excellence Award in the "Laughter, Smiles, Happiness, Joy:" section. Perhaps the fact that we saw few works on this theme expressing laughter in a straightforward manner is a sign of the times, when there isn't much to laugh about. Among these works, one that stood apart from the others was "Laughing Boys' Choir." First, the concept was unique. Certainly, there are many different kinds of laughing people and kinds of laughter. This is a work in which we can enjoy various contrasts, such as orderly/disorderly, group/individual and light/dark. We felt it was most suitable for the Excellence Award in the "Laughter, Smiles, Happiness, Joy:" section.
The Excellence Award for "Create, Construct, Manufacture : " went to Kiyoung An's "Portrait 1, 2, 3, 4, 5." It seems that Mr. An really made a serious effort to portray the "Create, Construct, Manufacture : " theme. His newly born unique work was a collage produced using actual images of human body parts. The strange, eerie monsters with left-right symmetry unmistakably turn out to be created from the human body. When the viewer observes these eerie monsters carefully, however, he sees that they resemble frogs or robots and they look cute.
*Special Encouragement Award
In Tatsuya Uchida's "Life is beautiful," we sensed a more complete version of the unique world he created in his Excellence Award-winning entry last year. We can also see his progress in the rich use of colors used in this year's entry, suitable for the theme of "Color, Brilliance, Vividness : ." On the other hand, we also sense that, while still young, Mr. Uchida's style is maturing, and the Screening Committee selected him for the Special Encouragement Award, agreeing that we would like him to try his hand at new styles. |
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