▲These Monster Aliens, made solely of colorful and pop pipe cleaners,
are the main monsters that comprise Takuma Fujisaki’s “Mogol World.”
Shaggy, fluffy, and wooly.
These are some of the words that might be used to describe the mysterious creatures covered in colorful fur, created by designer Takuma Fujisaki. Using a single material —craft pipe cleaners— and his skillful modeling technique, he creates one-of-a-kind characters which inhabit a unique imaginary world. Pipe cleaners are thin, flexible wires that are covered in fuzzy, colorful fiber. Takuma says he has been pursuing the possibilities of this material for a good fifteen years to date. We took a peek into the ever-expanding world of his fascinating creations.
As a child, Takuma enjoyed making crafts and drawing pictures more than studying or playing sports. It wasn’t until he had to decide where to go to college that he reconfirmed the direction of his once-forgotten interests. He chose Nagaoka Institute of Design in his hometown of Niigata, thinking how "it would be nice to learn how to make things at college level.” After entering, he learned all the technical skills, and ultimately decided to focus on graphic design and illustration.
However, upon graduation, as is typical, he became unsure about his career path. Although his professor recommended that he become an illustrator, it seemed difficult for Takuma to make his art known to the world as social media wasn’t as pervasive then as it is now. And so, Takuma decided to make illustrations while securing a position in a graphic design company in Tokyo.
After a hard day of work at the design office, Takuma would return home and work on his illustrations until the wee hours of the morning. In addition to this exhausting routine, he also felt overwhelmed by how well other artists in Tokyo seemed to be doing. “I felt that I wasn’t good enough and came to a standstill," he recalls.
Takuma often became tired of making illustrations, much less find an artistic direction. And yet, his hands never ceased to make things. “It was obvious to me that making was my thing. For about a year, I was making monsters and modeling other objects with clay, and that’s when I made the shift from two-dimensional to three-dimensional work," he explains.
The protrusions of the pipe cleaner ends have been deftly expressed,
which is telling of the artist’s solid modeling skills.
His encounter with pipe cleaners, the craft material readily available in 100-yen stores and stationery stores, coincided with this turning point. “I didn't think anything of it at the time, but it came in so many colors and seemed like an interesting material.” He was surprised by the response he received when he began to tinker with this newfound material. When he showed an object using pipe cleaners “as a kind of curveball” for a group exhibition, Takuma got great response from his audience.
These explorations also brought about changes in his illustrations. Until then, he had been drawing monsters inspired by the early Ultraman or the Kanegon monster, all rendered in dark tones characteristic of the Japanese films and comic books of the 1970s and 80s. But his encounter with the colorful and pop pipe cleaners changed all this into a more playful world.
Perhaps it was by moving back and forth between his then scattered interests and strengths, and drawing connections between them, that Takuma was able to construct his current multifaceted world.
▲GIZAMONS is a monster that controls wind and fire. Like so, each of Takuma’s characters has its own personality and story, It might be fun to look for your favorite character!
The "Mogol Aliens" and their mutant offspring, the "Mogol Mutants" occupy an important place in Takuma’s art. These characters, each with their own name and personality, tell an epic story that takes place in the last city of mankind, and in space, among other curious settings. They are introduced only modestly and their full stories are never revealed. This piecemeal presentation is intentional, he says. “If for example, I say, ‘so this guy’s the final boss,’ that finalizes the story. But if I keep it open-ended, the story can expand infinitely in a lateral kind of way. I can keep adding characters and create other stories and side stories and the viewers will also wonder, ‘what’s Takuma up to next?’ (laughs)” Takuma thinks that making his pipe cleaner characters is like placing flowers in different corners of the world, bringing joy to those who see them.
▲The story of the Mogol characters take place in what is called the Mogols Saga Universe. This is a scene from Episode 2, the “Space Galaxcity Cosmic Comics.” The narrative that unfolds in this imaginary space city could be a possible future story.
The works are made solely from pipe cleaners, without using glue or a base structure. After creating the general shape of the work, he stuffs or weaves in short pieces inside…that’s how far Takuma will explain his craft. While one might imagine pipe cleaner crafts to be rather small, Takuma’s work can be as tall as 30 cm and exude quite an impressing presence. On the average, one work uses nearly 1,000 pipe cleaners and takes several days to complete.
Some characters have quirky expressions, while others proudly carry gadgets for combat. Characters that are two or three heads high are clad in costumes with pockets and belts...like so, each character is like a puzzle composed of various creative elements that Takuma has found inspiring and stored in his mind over the years. “I extract nuances of various things I find interesting and infuse them into my work. It feels good to be able to create something concrete with my hands from the experiences and characters I have seen and liked in the past,” he says.
▲A Mogol Alien soft vinyl figure, Galaxy Metallic.
Recently, Takuma has been garnering attention overseas and has plans to develop not only his pipe cleaner crafts but also soft vinyl figures, fashion items, and various other merchandise worldwide. Although the scope of his activities continues to expand, his work remains grounded in the craft.
“Making is my purpose in life. If I’m not making things, I can be pretty unstable (laughs). Looking back, no matter how unsure I was, I continued to make things and that was what kept me going. Perhaps I’m more of an artisan, if you will. If I’m making, it’s all good.”
For more information on Takuma Fujisaki and his pipe cleaner craft, please visit his website and Instagram.
http://mogols-fuji.jp
https://www.instagram.com/mogols_tokyo/
