I think for Giant Robot, again, we wanted to actually do more than write articles and sell products. I think the whole idea was to help raise up-and-coming artists to achieve what their goals were and to do art, which is one of the hardest avenues to be successful in, just doing visual arts. So, I think that’s one of the things we wanted to do is, have an exhibition space in our stores, give that, give a lot of young artists a chance to show their stuff, basically. We do have San Francisco and our New York store, so I think the whole idea is to really get this kind of like involvement with people to come in and do more than just buy products, let’s say, or you know, read a magazine. We really wanted people to take it to the next level and look at artwork and appreciate that, because it’s just a very hard avenue for people.
I think that’s one reason why, it was just, again, it was something we really wanted to do. What I’m really interested in doing is, seeing all these artists that start with, let’s say, in college and then, I see them all of a sudden support themselves through their art. It’s a really rare thing to do, and it’s happening more and more and I’d like to think we’re a small part of that, with these people’s careers, and having these stores in San Francisco and New York and being able to show there makes a big difference. ‘Cause, you know, we can show them in all three cities and give them a lot of visibility, I think that’s kinda important. Yeah, again, it’s just like the lowest street level of galleries, I mean we’re a store and with an exhibition space. I think as you get higher, it’s just the museum is the highest level you can get to. We’re at the very ground level, just getting people started.
Date: November 27, 2005
Location: California, US
Interviewer: John Esaki and Janice Tanaka
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
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