You may have heard the name Julian Klincewicz around of late, and if not you’re likely to catch on soon. He’s the multitalented young San Diego creative of bands LUBE and Christy (featured in HERO 10), who’s most recently been putting his lo-fi filmmaking tact to use in collaborations with Vans and Gosha Rubchinskiy.

Julian’s lately spent a lot of time in Tokyo. Hanging out and holidays have collided with prepping his new exhibition HEY I LIKE YOU, a continuation of a series of projects that kicked off last year in his hometown of Encinitas, California.

To celebrate the exhibition, Julian made us a photo diary made up of snaps from his recent trip to Tokyo.

Tempe Nakiska: When did you first go to Japan?
Julian Klincewicz: So the first time I came to Tokyo was in October of 2014. I bought a ticket with some friends for six days, and ended up staying for about two months. It’s definitely not like any other place I’ve been – the extremes are really exciting where you have super crowded-hyper-light areas like Shinjuku and Shibuya, and then you have super calm and beautiful temples and shrines like a twenty-minute walk away in Yoyogi park… Especially compared to San Diego.

Mostly I’ve just stayed in and around Tokyo, but I went to Kamakura for a little bit, and then Nagano as well. Hopefully next time I’m out here I can stay longer and go to Osaka and Naoshima.

You get the sense in your photos that you have quite an intimate relationship with Tokyo, what do you love about it and Japanese culture?
Tokyo definitely feels really special for me – it was the first place I really spent and extended period of time independently, and in another country. Every time I come back it feels like visiting a friend. It’s also good because I feel like I can sort of gauge my maturity level and excitement about the world about how I feel when I’m in Tokyo. In general Japanese people are also just much more polite and friendly than Americans (I feel), so it’s sort of always a good lesson and reminder that it’s nice to other people.

Favourite Tokyo spots?
Generally it’s Yoyogi park – just reading a book in the park is so nice. There’s a lil’ coffee shop in Shibuya I like too – they have this sweet fig bread that’s so good. It’s called About Life Coffee.

So why did you choose Tokyo for the next instalment of HEY I LIKE YOU?
I’d been talking with a few galleries since last April, when I had an exhibition at ROCKET Gallery in Harajuku. The work looks at precious objects and our relationship to them, and Japan has such a product culture, an object interest, that it seemed fitting. Also a lot of my most precious objects are from my first trip to Japan, and it’s also a good place to show because there’s a lot of interest in my work here.

What was the inspiration behind the show? Did you curate it for this audience in any way?
So this body of work looks at a few different ideas – as I mentioned, how objects that are precious to us, a lot of times get used as surrogates or intermediaries for human connections; it also is sort of a response to irony; it’s also just a general statement on empathy, on really feeling for other people and trying to send out some little reminder that we all want to be appreciated, we all want to be held sometimes, we’re all scared and lonely sometimes, we’re all human.

I think it’s sort of increasingly hard to just have that human connection, it sort of feels taboo somehow to feel like you need support or need to be held, or need to be told something nice.

When you have a crush on somebody, and you feel so inexplicably connected to them, or when you miss your best friend and just want to talk, or when you see all these people on the trains or walking around staring at their phones and just want to have some sort of tangible emotional relationship or interaction with them; but you kind of just can’t… If you have a crush on someone I think it’s sort of natural to be enthralled and equally intimidated by them, or when you miss your friend you can call or text, but it’s just not the same as talking with them in real life. So for me at least, I think objects begin to fill that space a little bit – special books or zines my friends have made, a tee shirt that reminds me of a place, my guitar, that sort of thing.

What about the actual materials you’ve used in the exhibition, silk for example…
To me silk is really precious, and I think sort of reflects that emotional state – it’s fragile and inviting and a little ephemeral. So to make these flags that can just sort of remind you that some one else cares and feels the same, that I feel the same; I think it’s nice. There’s a bunch more ideas about the work, but I don’t think I can say them all succinctly enough yet – it’s more just a feeling.

How have you seen the idea develop across the instalments so far?
I sort of had the idea of having this body of work be shown in three to five instalments from the beginning, and each one would be a little different from the ones prior. So I wanted to start with big flags – big reminders for the days when you feel blue. Then move to smaller ones, scarves/handkerchiefs that are more about feeling a small sense of personal power or a reminder of someone else. One instalment will be woven blankets – not silks – these ones are more about surrogating a human hug – wanting to feel the physical weight of someone else, and the objects we use in their place when we can’t. There’s also an album that goes with the work – that’s sort of an atmospheric accompaniment – I want to release it with the third iteration of the work, along with a zine of the lyrics and some photographs to give the songs some context.

You’ve been quite busy with your filmmaking collaborations, which have also crossed over into the fashion world – and continue to. What have you been up to most recently?
I really enjoy working in fashion for video collaborations because there’s so much movement and texture, and at least with all the people I’ve worked with, their designs are really personal and interesting. I recently did another video with ECKHAUS LATTA, which was really exciting. I’ve got a few music video projects coming up, and maybe a short film later this year.