Revered as one of the most significant contemporary artists to emerge from Japan in the past 50 years, Mariko Mori has built an internationally acclaimed career since graduating with a BA (Hons) Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts in 1992. Working across multiple disciplines, Mori’s practice explores questions around life, death, technology, fantasy, and reality.

Mori first gained recognition with her series of staged photographic self-portraits, Play with Me and Subway (both 1994), which incorporated cosplay aesthetics to examine consumer culture and the role of women in Japanese society. By the age of 30, she had presented her work at the world’s largest art exhibition, the Venice Biennale, exhibiting Empty Dream (1995) and Nirvana (1997), the latter representing the Buddhist ideal of enlightenment and purification. These works were later showcased in her first UK solo exhibition at London’s Serpentine Gallery in 1998, the most comprehensive presentation of Mori’s work in the UK to date.

As her career progressed, Mori’s work increasingly incorporated themes of spirituality, futurism, and ancient traditions, with projects such as Dream Temple (1999) and Pure Land (1996–98) inviting viewers to experience technologically mediated environments inspired by Buddhist, Shinto and utopian ideals.

In recent years, Mori’s practice further developed around her personal beliefs that “we are one”, with the establishment of the Faou Foundation in 2010. The foundation promotes environmental consciousness, ecological preservation, and global unity through art.

Having received an honorary doctorate from UAL in 2015, Mori returns to Chelsea College of Arts to discuss her artistic influences, current projects, and her belief in the fundamental interconnectedness of all life.

I was familiar with art and paintings because of my mother’s profession as an art historian. From 9 or 10 years old, my father started to invent things, and he was often designing so I was exposed to using technology and creating new things from a very young age. But when you’re a teenager, you’re rebellious, right? You want to do things your parents don’t expect. So, for me, I was more interested in fashion and that’s why I ended up going to cultural college in Tokyo. In the beginning, I wasn’t really thinking about going to an art college.

Before attending Chelsea College of Arts, I enrolled on a Foundation course and I expected to be entering into a foundation course for fashion, but it was purely fine art. It turned out to be a fortunate accident because it changed my mind and I was able to explore paintings, sculptures and, through this, I found total freedom. I really enjoyed it and it led me to apply for a place at Chelsea.

At the time, Chelsea College of Arts was situated on the Kings Road, which is renowned for its fashion, globally. I often went to Kings Road and Vivienne Westwood’s store near The World’s End pub. For me, as a fashion student, it was a sacred store. Spending time on Kings Road, I was always curious of people who were walking around with folios.

What was your experience of studying at Chelsea College of Arts?

When I was in my first year at Chelsea studying painting, one of my tutors was the sculptor, Roger Ackling. His work was very much influenced by zen Buddhism, which I hadn’t explored much, but it certainly resonated with me a lot after I graduated. Roger was always encouraging. He was very complimentary which gave me a lot of confidence as a young artist. After my first year, I studied time-based media. We had a lot of prominent guest lecturers, and this was a big part of Chelsea’s appeal to me.

In terms of your artistic process, what are some initial steps you take when developing a new idea?

This really depends. The medium I use is entirely based on the idea. I try not to limit the media I use, so anything that is available in this world can be utilised if it can add a new vocabulary to my artwork. Popular culture is something that people are very familiar with, so often utilising this is one of the easiest ways to express new ideas. When I want to talk about deeper consciousness or something non- linguistic, new technology and computer graphic animation can be helpful. Exploring ideas around architecture also helps, for example when working on outdoor sculptures. Ultimately, I want to expand my vocabulary and approach and that's a great thing about our world today – there’s endless options to expand your ideas.

Is there a piece of work from your career that you've felt a particular connection with?

For me, the process of producing artwork is like a journey of trying to find an answer to myself. From Shintoism to Buddhism to prehistoric cultures - I use my artwork to explore myself and try to dive into those practices. This process sometimes reveals new ideas, philosophies or hidden codes.

I have an inner sense that I'm here to produce this work and share these ideas. My artworks, perhaps, look quite different but, for me, they are all part of me because it is my experience. It is my interpretation, and this is something I hope is delivered to future generations.

Right now, my interests are anthropology and the development of spirituality in early Homo sapiens. I’m really trying to discover and find answers to myself and, by making artwork, I can share this with the audience.

Can you tell us how Shintoism and Buddhism has impacted your work?

In terms of Shintoism, it’s about the attitudes towards honouring nature and about human beings being humble and worshipping the nature gods who help preserve our environment. Essentially, Shintoism puts humans in a more balanced relationship with nature.

Buddhism promotes the concept of oneness which highlights the equality of all the living beings and explores how we are all connected. It also describes the idea of reincarnation. It's more of a moral system. Again, it links back to this idea that, as humans, we should be more humble.

I think that both ideas remind us of the importance of the spiritual world. We’re often so caught up in the material world, we forget that all we have is a soul, which is eternal. From a practical point of view, it’s very helpful to focus more on yourself rather than the external world. Communicating and interacting with artwork takes you to the same space, where your heart sings.

How do you navigate the different dichotomies present within your work?

Well, people often see my work as a juxtaposition: past and future; tradition and technology and so on, but I don’t necessarily see it like this.

It’s like when you look at religious paintings in Western culture. They try to depict these legendary images by using the latest technology available to them at the time. Even the very first object that humans made, which is a hand axe: it's the same thing. It's the latest technology that they could have with their imagination and the tools available to them at the time. It's a spiritual reflection of the creative force of human beings.

Humans have always created new media and technology to express and share ideas. We are evolving and producing new methods all the time. When the idea of multi universe was introduced, we imagined it. In other words, we created a space in our mind that never existed before. Suddenly, we were able to adapt that idea into our lives. As artists, we’re on a mission to illustrate that. Often, artists bring a new vision and then words follow that vision.

What role does collaboration play in your projects?

All my work, I cannot do alone. I always invite collaborators and specialists to support me in my practice. I usually share my vision with specialists who can help me realise it, so it's a very important partnership for me.

Can you tell us more about the Faou Foundation and how you see it developing?

The original idea for the Faou Foundation came to me in 2010 as an idea to install site-specific permanent installations on each continent. The installations are designed to honour the different elements of our environments and promote the idea of being one with nature. It’s a very traditional idea to be more humble to nature and express respect to nature. I really wanted to extend that idea in contemporary society so that we will try to preserve nature, but also to really appreciate nature. I feel that when you are confronted with nature, your true nature as a human appears. For example, you could be a doctor or a lawyer, but in nature, you are simply a human.

The project is also important in terms of sharing our work with local people and giving opportunities for local people to explore contemporary art in a different setting than a museum. These local people are caretakers for our earth, so we need to honour them too.

The current project that I finished installing in Venice this year was supposed to go to Ethiopia, where there is great evidence of human evolution. I want to honour that and remind us that we all came from Africa. We are one big family tree. We are equal. We are the same, and we are one. I continue to work on the foundation, and we are expanding our education programmes.

What advice would you have for young artists just starting out in their career?

You need to have life experiences so you can go deeper into yourself. I started with more therapeutic artwork, to try and open my heart.

There’s also the fact that when you travel around the world, it really helps you find your identity and you discover your culture when you see different cultures. It's funny, but when I was living outside of Japan, I was able to discover Japan. It's really all self-discovery work. All the answers are within you. Be confident in your intuition because it really guides you. I was told when I was studying at Chelsea, and it’s something that I still hold true: keep believing in yourself because only you can believe in yourself.

• Find out more about Mariko Mori
• Find out more about the Faou Foundation
• Find out more about BA (Hons) Fine Art