Mumbreeze: In The Realm Of Papier-mache Creatures

14 Jul 2008 Category: Arts & Crafts, Graphics, Japan

Mumbreeze: In The Realm Of Papier-mache Creatures

A weirdly interesting looking papier-mache sculpture from Mumbleboy's and E*Rock's exhibition called "Paper Machete Squad" in Portland, Oregon, this January. Courtesy of Mumbreeze.

Who makes these enchanting papier-mache realms inhabited by robots and all sorts of wild animals? Mumbreeze! It’s the Japanese artist couple, Kinya Hanada a.k.a. Mumbleboy (also famous for his symmetric collages) and his wife Kao, a Jill of all trades who work between Portland, Oregon and Japan. To be precise, at the moment Kinya is in Portland, and Kao is in Japan for visa reasons. Despite this fact they are still extremely busy — Kao has her “green green” solo exhibition at HP France/HaNNa WALL space at Laforet, Harajuku until the end of this month and their new show “Spirits” just started at Nagi Shokudo, Shibuya’s foremost vegan restaurant and exhibition space. PingMag most certainly went along for delicious food with Kinya and Kao.

Written by Ian Lynam and Selena Hoy


After staying at Milky Elephant’s place in NY…

… Kinya and Kao thanked them with a series of special elephants. Photos courtesy of Mumbreeze.

This is a bit of a standard question, but how did you guys meet?

Kinya: I met Kao through friends that I made with social networking online. It used to be like people would know about me through work I had online, and then when social networking started happening… all of a sudden I had so many friends. Some of them have become actual friends and Kao was a friend of those friends.

Collage for Neojaponisme Kinya made only with pictures he had taken while in Japan. Courtesy of Mumbreeze.

And how did it begin with you as an art couple?

Kinya: As Mumbreeze, we don’t have that much history yet. We’ve slowly started working together after we were going out together. Kao was first helping me make my own artwork, and now she’s making her own stuff as well.


From Mumbley a.k.a. Kinya collage series…

… all done in Photoshop. Courtesy of Mumbreeze.

What is it about your name, Mumbreeze?

Kinya: Some friends (mostly Japanese) would call me like Mumble or Mumbly. And when we started doing stuff together we thought we needed a name. And the most obvious one was Mumblys . But that was too straight, so we changed the spelling to Mumbreeze. For the Japanese, the pronunciation is actually exactly the same. Kao liked having “breeze” in the name as well.

Kao’s “Green Green” installation right now at HP France/HaNNa’s WALL at Laforet, Harajuku. Courtesy of Mumbreeze.

Sounds fresh, indeed! What media do you prefer working in?

Papier-mache, fabric, paper, water based paint, etc… We like using these, but I’m sure we’ll use other materials as well in the future.


More of Kao’s “Green Green” installation.

Tell us a bit about your recent exhibitions please.

Kinya: The last Mumbreeze show was in NYC called Super Heroes Return. It was sort of similar to the “Super Heroes” show that me and E*rock [founder of Audio Dregs record label] did in Tokyo. Kao helped me quite a bit, but wasn’t officially a part of it. For the NYC show, she did a lot more and made her own pieces as well. The “Return” in the title also referred to us returning to NYC for the first time since we moved from there to Portland.

As Mumbleboy, I was in a group show in NYC at the hpgrp NY gallery curated by Hanna Fushihara Aron in May.

From the Mumbleboy’s “Paper Machete Squad” exhibition with E*Rock this January in Portland, Oregon. Courtesy of Mumbreeze.

Kinya, you have had work displayed in Grand Central Station, a NY iconic landmark. What was that project about?

That was called Holiday Light show at Grand Central. It was sort of like a public art project in which they used a special projector to project video or animation pieces onto the walls and ceiling of the main Grand Central hall. The projector could be programmed to move along with the animation, so I made one in which I had some characters that flew around the ceiling. It was a really awesome project.


And more from the Portland show.

Another wild papier-mache works by Mumbreeze.

What’s the story with the giant inflatable parade you participated in?

Kinya: That was a project called Skywalkers put together by Friends With You. The idea was that beings from all over the universe came to Earth to celebrate this planet becoming part of the space community. They asked a bunch of us, such as Paperrad, Misaki Kawai, Ara Peterson, and others to design some characters which were made into these huge balloons. Then we did a parade on Miami Beach during Art Basel 2006. It was definitely surreal to see your own characters so big and floating over the beach. [See them float around here.]

During Art Miami Basel 2006, Mumbleboy had his inflatable character flying over the beach for the Skywalkers event. Courtesy of Mumbreeze.

Kao, you got your start doing manga, correct? How did that happen?

Back in the days, there were many manga magazines at my mother’s café and I and my sister used to read manga for youths and adults. Also, both of my parents used to do oil-painting as a hobby and they were pleased to see me draw and always praised my drawings. For my 17th birthday, my sister bought me a series of the Garo) underground manga magazine and reading those made me feel that I had to create manga too. Garo was quite a stunning mag and its cover featured Teruhiko Yumura, while the serialised authors included Kazuichi Hanawa, Suehiro Maruo, Takashi Nemoto and Yoshikazu Ebisu.

Last year, Mumbleboy and E*Rock had also a joint exhibition called “Super Heroes,” this time at hpgrp Gallery Tokyo in Shibuya. Courtesy of Mumbreeze.

Then, what are you working on currently?

Kinya: As Mumbreeze, we don’t have any big projects at the moment, but we are making papier-mache dolls! We’re hoping to do a show in Buenos Aires later this year, so we’ll be planning and working towards that.

A papier-mache variation of dolls, also from the “Super Heroes” show from 2007. Courtesy of Mumbreeze.

And what about the show right now at Nagi Shokudo in Shibuya?

Kinya: The subjects are animal figures. I think they are more sort of spirits than actual animals.

Interesting! Kinya, your work has veered into a new direction over the past five years, becoming both more sculptural and collage-based. How has your work been changing and why?

Before I was doing computer-based work, I was doing a lot of painting and collages, so it just might be that I’m going back to my roots. In the 90’s, it seemed like using the computer and making artwork in some ways, resembled the look of commercial design seemed novel. But now there is so much of that, so I guess I’m just doing what interests me more at the moment.


New dolls…

… in the making.

Who are your top five favorite artists?

Kinya: Shinro Ohtake, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Misaki Kawai, Yamantaka Eye, Shoboshobo. However, I don’t look at other artists as how they can influence you, so my choices might seem kind of limited.

Kao: I have too many favourite artists to name just five… However recently, I am more attracted to simple works with a high level of craftsmanship, such as Amu-chan from the Amu Purin-Seizosho.

Aside from each other, with whom else do you collaborate?

Kinya: I’ve collaborated quite a bit over the years with E*rock. I’ve also done some work with Karl Ackermann from our collective Milky Elephant.

Spirit animals for the “Sticky, Messy, and Sweet” group show that just finished at hpgrp Gallery in NYC. Courtesy of Mumbreeze.

Lastly, what’s in for the Mumbreeze future?

Kinya: We’ve started a project in which we send out blank papier-mache dolls to artists and have them finish them. I’m really looking forward to how different artists treat them. We’ll have an online gallery and then we hope to exhibit them somewhere in the future as well. We also have an online shop with fair-trade goods and recycled things.


Who could resist…

… these uber-sweet Mumbledolls…?

Oh, little “Cat Toys” from the Mumbreeze shop.

Oh, good to hear that! We’ll roam around in it right away! Thank you, Kinya and Kao of Mumbreeze! Folks, you must totally stop by the Nagi Shokudo vegan diner for a bite and to have a look around. Not in Tokyo? Check out Mumbleboy’s Flickr site for more awesome papier-mache art.

Kinya and Kao Hanada, the artist couple known as Mumbreeze. They were a little bit shy… Courtesy of Mumbreeze.

75 Comments

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    Posted by: AMOS (kingyo san) on July 14th, 2008 at 9:34 pm

  2. Great use of colour, and amazing characters! Interesting medium.

    Posted by: Andrei Sarusi on July 15th, 2008 at 1:05 am

  3. here’s a link to the show info!

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/mumblion/2624114256/

    Posted by: selena on July 15th, 2008 at 1:15 am

  4. I love these intense colours and the design of some of those creatures is simply adorable. Great article, very inspiring!

    Posted by: Agnes on July 15th, 2008 at 3:41 am

  5. love your works and characters, mumbleboy.

    Posted by: undoboy on July 15th, 2008 at 11:19 am

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  7. i highly recommend Nagi Shokudou to everyone ^_^

    Posted by: Alice on July 16th, 2008 at 6:49 pm

  8. its so bright & lovely .

    good work.
    and great potential in paper
    Paper Power !!! :-)

    Posted by: Paavani on July 18th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

  9. Your artwork is so inspiring. I am interested in participating with the blank paper mache doll project

    Posted by: lori on July 30th, 2008 at 1:00 am

  10. Oh, to be so free in one’s art!

    Thanks for a nice interview. I love the new crafty direction of Mumblebreeze’s work!

    Posted by: Tulip Art Projects on August 8th, 2008 at 11:24 pm

  11. Interesting use of colours!

    Posted by: Anonymous on September 17th, 2008 at 11:49 am

  12. Hi there, how does this work? Like the things i see here.
    I’m an artist who works a lot in Paper Mache. Just begun to show a few images of my most recent project ‘Jazz musical instruments’ on The Paper Mache Recource Centre site hoping to get feed back etc but it’s not happening.

    Posted by: Spencer on September 20th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

  13. Woweeee I love the creatures, when and where is the next expedition ???

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