What is your work about and what medium do you use?

My illustrations are a sort of never-ending series that looks into a fictional intersection between modern Japan and Shintō folklore – centrally that of the Izanami and Izanagi legend. The illustrations are all snippets of how this intersection would take shape as a fictional society, exploring the notion of “modern mythology” through re-examining Japanese mythology and traditions under a contemporary lens. My illustrations are all done on Photoshop, using a Wacom drawing tablet!

How did your project come to be?

My sister and I have always had this weird fascination for other worlds. Whether it was from the fantastical videogames that we used to watch our older brother play to cyberpunk films, such as Blade Runner – we were so obsessed with the idea of leaving our common society and diving into the realm of magic and mystique. Earlier in 2020, we had actually conceived this strange idea of a world that employed both futuristic and traditional architectural properties. I first properly explored the imagery for this in a university assignment, which was to re-brand Parco Museum in Shibuya, Tokyo. Parco Museum is a cultural institution that aims to transport their audience into a different dimension, so I took this brief as an opportunity to realize the aforementioned narrative.

The conceptual branding system that I designed for Parco Museum consolidated the aforementioned notion through utilising other-worldy imagery to create a fictional branding narrative. Japanese folklore and ancient tales of the samurai acted as heavy inspiration for such imagery, as it evoked senses of familiarity while lying in the realm of the mystic unknown.

I created characters that resembled that of a modern-day samurai, and used photographs from previous trips to Japan, as reference when building this unique, hybrid world for the museum’s speculative branding system. Throughout it all, the seemingly mundane university brief actually became one of my favourite projects to date. I enjoyed developing this so much that those initial characters, and my sister's original notes of the universe, became the fundamentals of a renewed personal drawing style.

How has your practice changed over time?

I’d say that developing the Parco Museum brief was the catalyst for legitimizing my illustration practice. The act of illustration – or the thought of being able to sell my art – had never been on the forefront of my mind. I mean, I drew all the time as a kid. I vividly recall attending Chinese art class on warm Saturday afternoons, wasting my hours drawing random anime characters. Even throughout studying graphic design in high school, and then in my undergraduate degree, I was drawing all of my ideas before taking it to the computer.

But, it wasn’t until 2020 when I realised that the act of illustrating became integral to my design practice. It was a creative discipline that was so natural to my design process that I didn't even realise that I actually enjoyed it. So, in saying all of this, I’d say that my illustrating practice hasn’t drastically changed over time, but mindset about it most certainly has.

Is there an emotional connection to your work?

There is! Purely because the inspiration behind my illustrations came from a rather “embarrassing” part of my childhood experience.

I grew up in Christchurch, New Zealand and at the time of my childhood, Christchurch was notorious for being one of the most racist cities in New Zealand – there’s the urban legend that the further south you go in New Zealand, the less progressive it is, and Christchurch just so happens to be smack-bang in the middle of the South Island. Growing up, I watched so much anime. I would decorate my textbooks with screenshots from Naruto and the other kids would think that it was so weird that I had these “Asian” cartoon characters plastered all over my stationary. Frankly, anime and manga were fundamental in developing my existing art style. But, I was so ashamed and embarrassed about my love for the animated art form, because I didn’t want my peers to see me as “that Chinese chick who watches anime.” I wanted them to see me as a proper Kiwi kid. And Kiwi kids didn't watch anime.

The funny thing about all of this now is that I see and hear a lot of my peers raving about and posting stills from a lot of late 80s/early 90s anime such as Cowboy Bebop, Akira, and Neon Genesis Evangelion on social media. Their respective art styles are really quite gorgeous and I guess everyone has a bit of crush on the zeitgeist of that time period. Anime is beginning to be considered “trendy” and en route to being normalized, which I really am excited about. It just sucks that it took so long for a wider audience to see that anime and manga actually holds so much artistic value.

Keeping an open mind and giving ideas or things the chance to warm up to you, I think, is essential in building a bit of a mental encyclopedia that you can just refer to when you have a new brief or when you want to execute your next project. Having a genuine curiosity to the world around you totally influences your human experience, let alone your unique creative practice.

Where can we see more of your work? What is next for you?

I’m still chugging along with my Masters in Communication Design, so the only thing on the horizon right now is just making it through my first year!

I have a few gigs coming up, mainly “Ascent” as well as a summer display at Hibiki. I’m also compiling all of my illustrations (thus far!) into a personal publication, which I am still pondering about whether I should make it available for purchase later on... but I post most of my stuff on my Instagram @dwnliu, otherwise on my website www.dawnliu.com.