Aki Yaguchi, a Japanese-born Australian artist, shares her process, and influences, as she creates a mural of her Tobu Hime (飛ぶ姫), or ‘Floating Girls’, in Melbourne’s Fitzroy.
In Japanese, tobu (飛ぶ) means ‘to fly’, and hime (姫)means ‘maiden’, the two words together describing Aki’s characters as ‘Floating Girls’. She originally started playing with her Tobu Hime illustrations in high school, when she was asked to draw something that best represented her as a person and an artist. She says she was constantly imagining and never present.
“‘I was a very spacey child, so my parents would always describe me as out of this world.” Aki remembers.
Aki credits the influence of her father, an illustrator, as a reason for the path that would eventually lead her to be painting walls. She discusses the importance of having her identity present in her work, allowing her to be an influence, or role model for “people like me” – remembering the absence of such role models in the graffiti (or street art) world, in her earlier days of painting outside.
To stay updated with Aki’s work, follow @akiyaguchi on Instagram.
Roll the credits:
Starring Aki Yaguchi
Filmed, Directed and Edited by Taylor Bennie-Faull
Sound and Composition by Calum Kenihan
