Akinori shimodaira (Akinori) : No, we've both always used Copic markers. When we first showed one another our artwork, we counted and then brought our stuff out on the table at the same time. Then we were both like, "Wow, they're so similar!" Up until that point, we didn't even really realize that the other one was drawing pictures, because we were both working on installation-type stuff. I would write stories from imagination and then make sculptures and things like that.

Reiko Tada (Reiko) : Yeah. And I was doing performances in costumes and stuff.

Akinori: I was doing that for about five years after I graduated from university. But I felt that I wasn't really growing much as a creator, and it wasn't enough to get by on either, so I began to do design-type jobs. In order to bring a degree of individuality to the design that I was doing, I began to bring in elements from the pictures that I'd been making.

Is that when you began to consider making pictures professionally?

Akinori: At first, I was making pretty psychedelic kind of art: animals with all kinds of multicoloured stuff spilling out of their mouths and things. I realized that I probably couldn't make a living from those sorts of pictures, so I thought that I better start producing stuff that was a bit more sophisticated, or could at least serve as illustration. At that point, I had absolutely no idea what sort of change that would be. That was where my thoughts were at when I showed Reiko my work, saying, well this is the kind of stuff I've been doing, and then it turned out that she'd been doing the same.

Reiko: I'd been making pictures for a while, but it was just occasionally that I'd do illustration jobs. I'd do pictures for the band every now and then, and when I started putting them up on the home page, I got a good reaction. So I started feeling more positive about it and thinking that I should draw more, and the number of jobs that I was getting started increasing. People would be like, oh, we'll get the girl from Kiiiiiiii to do it.

And that was the start of your career as illustrators. When did you begin to work together as Quzmo?

Akinori:A friend of ours, Ushijima, who produces Crack Iron Albatrossket performances, said to us that they were putting on an event in Roppongi Hills, and invited the two of us to do something for it - in fact, it was that experience which also made us think about getting married. That was in 2004, and it was the first time that we'd drawn anything together. It was a hut-like place about two square metres in size, and he said to us, you've got two days to draw whatever you want. So we went along feeling quite relaxed about it, thinking that we'd just have a go at drawing together and see, as a kind of experiment. We still prepared for it properly beforehand though, going shopping together to buy the right materials. When we actually did it, we were surprised to find it an oddly stress-free experience, and that was how we realized that making work together was cool. It all started bit by bit from there, and we gradually got more and more chances to do stuff together. At first we were doing fancy stuff like kiri-e [paper cutting] or projecting images on the wall and drawing on top of them, but after we'd been going for a while, we realized that people generally seemed more pleased when we just did simple things. So then we just went along to places and drew animals and stuff in our pretty but garish style.

Reiko: At first that we thought we needed a theme and needed to be clever. So when we did live painting we'd use words, and then come up with stories to connect the words together. But now we just draw exactly how we like, as I think a drawing unit should do.

Section of the work produced at live-drawing event organised by gm-ten.

The live painting event that you did for Waterman was pretty much like that?

Reiko: It was initially Akinori who was invited to do that, but then he asked me to come too, so I ended up joining in.

I see! At times like that it must be handy to be part of a team.

Akinori:Right. When there's two of you, you don't always have to do everything yourself, you can leave it part way through. If I don't feel like drawing any more, I'll just say the word to her, and she'll take over.

Reiko:I prefer drawing concrete things, where as Akinori is better at doing things like fills and colours and ambient stuff, so we work well as a team. Before, I found painting a real pain, but I assumed that he did too, so I thought I couldn't ask him to do it, that I had to do it myself. But actually that wasn't the case.



Akinori:Quzmo is the only time that I actually paint. So now I've been appointed as the painter.

At the Tokyo Bamboo Gallery. Quzmo doing live painting, accompanied by a live performance from Koji Takimoto.

It's not just events that you do as Quzmo, though - you also do commissions, right? What is the division of roles like for those?

Akinori:It depends, but for example in the 'Afternoon Tea' project we did recently, Reiko did the initial drawing and I added in the colour.

Reiko:It was my job to think of what we were going to draw, but once I'd done it I was like, right, and handed it over to him. Then he finished it off. It felt so easy!

It's a good idea to divide up the roles like that. It means that you both do your tasks effectively, and you can both respect the work that the other does.

Akinori:Recently we've also been planning a picture book, and we've got our own separate roles for that too. Reiko's doing the story and characters.

Reiko:He likes drawing, I like thinking about what to draw. That kind of thing.

So if Reiko doesn't work, then nothing ever gets done.

Akinori & Reiko:Yeah, something like that! (laughs)

Listening to you talk, it seems as if you enjoy working better as Quzmo than you do individually.

Reiko:Yeah, it's grown to be more and more fun.

Akinori:We might be having too much fun, now that we've started getting not just event work but also commissions.

Muji exhibition - "Create your own cardboard children's chair - Exhibition of gifts from 50 creators"

From the client's perspective, it may well be easier to order from a two-person unit than from individuals.

Akinori:Yes, I think that's true. I'm really glad that's the case. As we keep doing Quzmo stuff, there are clients who we've met individually who say, "this time we'll go with Quzmo!"

T-shirt produced in collaboration with FRAPBOIS

And when they say that - "we'll go with Quzmo" - what kind of results are they expecting, do you think?

Akinori:A lot of the work I do ends up being kind of girly-looking, or with a sort of mysterious atmosphere to it. Horoscopes, and that kind of thing. My pictures aren't childish. With Quzmo, we get a lot of requests for childish stuff, or quite messy, fun-looking illustrations.

Reiko:In my case, a lot of my most recent commissions have been for single-colour, line-drawing style work - not very flamboyant at all. Until four years ago, I'd always put loads of pink in all my pictures. Anyway, I think Quzmo is kind of a reaction to that simple stuff.

Together with your young son, Quzmo is now three - people will have even more reason to take an interest. That was either great planning on your part, or the bosses have their arms twisted easily (laughs). If you keep carrying on like this, Quzmo never be short of jobs.

Akinori & Reiko:We'll try!

Talk by Reiko Tada and Akito Inui at Aoyama Book Center

I'm looking forward to seeing what you get up to next. I know you're both working hard under your other guises also, but do you have any particular thoughts about what you'd like to do with Quzmo in the future?

Reiko:Well, yesterday we went to a talk show with artists Ryoji Arai and Naoko Nakui. You know, Ryoji Arai goes around Japan giving talks in a lot of places. If you're an illustrator, you don't really get called out to different places. But I was thinking, if we could take our live painting on tour, that would be cool.

Akinori:We'd like to do workshops too.

Reiko:Yeah, we want to go on trips to do lots of talks, live painting and workshops.

Akinori: Yes. We'll tell people that we're a family unit, with our son.

Text_Kenji Mori (BUILDING)

Translation_Polly Barton

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Quzmo

A two-person drawing unit made up of married couple Akinori Shimodaira (Murgraph) and Reiko Tada (Kiiiiiii) The pair are frequently involved with live painting, textile design and other projects.
http://quzmo.me/

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