NOJI
The instant the universe began. The instant a star first gives off light. The instant a life cries out for the first time. The quiet force held at the heart of a tree stump. The small universe that appears when water begins to swirl.
I believe all of these are one and the same phenomenon.
Tan — the singularity of being.
My works are not made to depict that moment, but to set it off — devices that make it happen. Energy radiating from a center. The boundary between light and darkness. The shift that takes place in a space. When you stand in front of them, I want you to feel the premonition that something is about to begin.
For me, making work is close to prayer. I turn my attention toward what does not yet exist, and move my hands believing it will be born. The studio, the exhibition space, the open ground outdoors — any of them can become a place for that prayer.
Having grown up in the nature of Hokkaido, I cannot separate the universe, the earth and life.
My work is to carry that sense beyond scale —
from canvas to mural, to installation, and someday to the land itself.
Born in Chitose, Hokkaido, in 1989. From early childhood, NOJI drew vividly colored pictures of imagined worlds, and communicated more through drawing than through words — turning a mountain ridgeline toward the other person and drawing it from the opposite side — a habit that grew into a way of seeing the world not from a single direction, but within relationships.
Growing up with the stories and photographs of a mother who traveled the world, and among folk crafts and textiles, NOJI became curious about nature, peoples, myths, patterns, cultures and philosophies from around the globe. In time came doubts about the values and systems people create, and a strong pull toward the mysteries of nature and the cosmos — and toward their perfection.
At thirteen, a passage on the tachyon — a hypothetical faster-than-light particle — in a book on space borrowed from a friend made that fascination with the universe decisive. Since then the work has centered on images beyond sight: light, dreams, the soul, the cosmos.
Graduated from Bunka Fashion College, Tokyo (Apparel Design, Fashion Technology Program), then spent about three years in Tokyo in apparel and TV-commercial production. Questions about how to live and what it means to exist led to a journey — a kind of experiment on the self — rooted in nature and origins. After a period of vegetarian, hippie-style living, NOJI returned to Hokkaido and began working as an artist.
Alongside many workshops with children, schools and welfare facilities, the practice spans spatial design for festivals, live painting, installations and logo design. In recent years it has grown to include planning, producing and directing entire art projects.