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These cacti have such a captivating appearance that they force us to reimagine what a cactus plant can look like. When grouped together, they give off a wild and intense energy. This OUTDOOR GALLERY exhibition features a collection of cacti grown by Shizuoka-based Ryosuke Yokoe. Many of them are rare or mutant species that you would not easily find in a garden center. Cacti live for a long time – many for 30 to 50 years, with some species said to live as long as nearly 200 years. As they breath and grow, slowly but surely, they are a source of inspiration for us all.

Friday, 9 June ~ Sunday, 23 July, 2023
12:00 – 19:00 (closes at 17:00 on the last day), closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays
3F & 4F, and wander OUTDOOR GALLERY with PAPERSKY
22-8 Motoyoyogicho, Shibuya, Tokyo
tel. 03-6407-8179

Such strange formations – I was shocked by their intensity.

――Please tell us how you became interested in cacti.

It was at a temple festival in Shizuoka city about 15 years ago. Every cactus plant I saw there had a form unlike anything I’d ever seen before. I was shocked and didn’t know what I was looking at. The shop owner who was selling them was probably in his sixties. The plants he was selling were quite expensive for me at the time, but I was so fascinated by them that I bought two or three plants. But they all died within six months of me taking them home. I wanted to know why they had died so I visited the shop owner in his cactus house. As I learnt more and more about how to grow and take care of cacti, I became more and more obsessed with them.

As a student I studied fashion and after returning to my hometown, Shizuoka, I worked in an apparel shop. When working there, I always felt that I wanted to find something that I could really call my own. While my friends were all becoming successful photographers or designers, I felt like I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I’ve always been naturally drawn to things with a physical form, not just fashion but also things like handicrafts or interior design, so when I came across cacti I just knew - “this is it!”.

――Did you have any past experience of growing plants?

It’s not like I was particularly green fingered or anything, but I was interested in flowers in my twenties, and there was a time when I liked the idea of owning a flower shop. So, thinking about it, maybe I’ve always been attracted to natural shapes and formations.

Having said that, cacti, specifically the rare or mutant species, where shaped like nothing I’d ever seen before and made a huge impression on me. At the time, such cacti were considered unfit for sale, so their market value was relatively low, but as the younger generation, myself included, started to take an interest in them and talk about how cool they were, people started to recognize their rarity and they became more valuable. Although my interest in cacti started with mutant plants, I’m now interested in all kinds of cactus. I grow them myself, and the more I learn about how they get their color or how you can multiply them, the more my interest grows.

――Yokoe-san, you are unique in that you grow your own cactus plants, rather than just selecting and exhibiting them. Why do you choose to grow them yourself?

Right from the get-go I had always intended to grow them myself. Or you could even say that it was through growing my own cactus plants that my interest in them was sparked. A greenhouse is the ideal environment for cactus plants, so for example if I graft some cacti together (a technique which involves artificially fusing two different species of cacti to make one plant), I can observe the transformation almost straight away. I think I learned how interesting cacti can be by actually observing their growth.

Although it does depend on the kind of cactus, in some cases their seeds, which are about the size of a grain of rice, will take three years to grow to the size of a one-yen coin. So, the palm top size cactus plants that you commonly see on sale in gardening shops have taken one to five years to reach that size. Knowing that you may wonder how much there is to do on a day-to-day basis, but there’s actually a lot! Re-potting, pollinating - I’m often so busy that the day just disappears. And then one day I suddenly notice that my cacti have grown. It’s those moments that make me happy. In Shizuoka, I go to the greenhouse almost every day, and spending time there makes me happy.

Original goods featuring “Immortal cacti”.

――“THE FASCINATED” is also known for its posters and T-shirts, right?

Cactus plants are living. So that means they will eventually die. I thought it would be great to have cacti that don’t die, and that’s why I started making posters and T-shirts. I also hope they can be a gateway for people to become interested in the weird and wonderful world of cacti.

I made two T-shirt designs in collaboration with “and wander” especially for this exhibition although I don’t think you’ll immediately recognize either of the graphics as cactus plants. When I design graphics, I try to create images that will be perceived differently by different people.

――The poster panels you made for this exhibition are B0, which is an extra-large size.

Yes, I wanted to surprise people with how big they are. One of the things I wanted to achieve through this exhibition is for people to relive the “surprise” I got when I entered a cactus greenhouse for the first time, so I wanted the poster panels to have an element of surprise to them too. The visuals themselves have no special message (laughs). The only thing I aimed for was for them to not look like cacti. I wanted to make a design that would make people ask “what’s that?” when you’re wearing the T-shirts, because I think that sort of interaction could be a chance for more people to become interested in cacti.

Things not going as I intend - that’s the greatest attraction.

――In your mind, what is it that makes cacti interesting?

I wonder… I think the biggest attraction is that they don’t always do what you intend. For example, a cactus plant that has been growing for tens of years might one year, just suddenly change its shape. They are unpredictable. They don’t grow exactly as we intend. That element of unpredictability that they possess because they are living beings is what makes them interesting I think.

Another thing is their longevity. That’s also one of the themes of this exhibition. Cactus plants can live for hundreds of years, so they can be passed on from parent to child. You could have a cactus plant that a father carefully nurtured over many years that is then passed on to his son to look after. I want people to know it’s possible for us to have that sort of relationship with a cactus plant.

――And finally, are they hard to grow?

I wouldn’t say it’s easy, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be fine. You often hear that “cactus plants don’t need watering”, but that’s a bit of a misconception. They need water but I think it’s important that you allow them to completely dry out after they have had water. For this, sunlight and air is important. They should be grown in a well-lit ventilated space where the soil they are in can completely dry out each time after you water them. If you do that, then one day they’ll just suddenly flower and once you can get them to flower, you’ll be hooked (laughs). Seeing them flower brings a lot of joy. I’ve brought together a large collection of plants for this exhibition and because you’ll be buying them directly from the person who grew them, me, they’re priced quite reasonably. My hope is that you will come to the exhibition to discover your first ever “mutated cacti”.