Inside Qubibi’s Shinjuku Studio

Peter Bauman (Monk Antony) reflects on how a visit to artist Kazumasa Teshigawara, known as qubibi, at his Shinjuku Kaibutsu studio highlights themes of contradiction, cyclicality, repetition and discovery through stillness. Bauman links these themes to qubibi's mimizu series, in which worms are contradictions, alive yet symbols of decay. qubibi says he left his previous studio in early 2023 when it was renovated, and that he has worked standing for the past two years. He says his teenage textile factory work, where he learned the grid of woven fabric, is an influence he only recognizes in hindsight.