Picopico | SONORE

Picopico is an artist and creator of what are known as “kaiju” monsters. The word “kaiju” comes from 17th and 18th century Japan, the Edo period, when it was used to refer to strange and fantastic animals with magical powers. Today “kaiju” is a term that tends to be used for imaginary, usually big, animals. The word came back into usage in modern Japan after the release of the first Godzilla film in 1954, followed by the TV series Ultraman at the end of the 1960s. In the 1970s there was a “kaiju boom” on television.

While a literature student, Picopico, almost by accident, started making little characters out of modelling clay. He then moved onto monsters with wigs that he showed at his first exhibition. He slid graually into this new activity rather than becoming obsessed all at once. The desire to make things he had never seen did eventually start to take him over however. Over the last 5 years, Picopico has consciously kept a sketchbook to record his “kaiju” each day, keeping his hand in and exercising his imagination.

Picopico’s monsters are earthlings, not extraterrestrials or fantasy figures. They each have their own characteristics or specificities. Take the monsters “Becos” and “Neba” for example. Picopico says, “The name “Becos” comes from a northern Japanese dialect and means “cow”. Becos is a horned monster. He and I are very close. I like his colour, blue, and his shape, nothing special, rather standard actually. But he has a long tongue, like the gods in Papua New Guinea. “Nottokaiju Neba” stinks and sticks to you. That’s his particularity! That’s why he’s made of natto (fermented soya seeds)!”

Picopico’s “kaiju” aren’t nasty. They live beyond the manmade concepts of good and evil, justice and injustice. “A huge “kaiju” can crush furniture or people when he walks but he does it without realizing, just because he’s moving around,” Picopico explains. The monsters spark various reactions: fear among children and a cult for the strange among adults. But monsters amuse and intrigue everyone, don’t they. They have an incredible power just by dint of being!