Sometimes collaborations can be amazing: Nadia Hironaka & Matthew Suib

Most of the artists that I know, most of them prefer to come up with an idea for a work of art individually, and then the artist may choose to develop the project individually. If the project is hard to push on, the artist may choose to collaborate with others. However, Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib are different from other artists. Since they are couples, they decided to work collaboratively. Hironaka and Suib work together right from the beginning of a project and then talk through all the ideas and then work on the works of art to create the end products. 

In the conversation that our class had with them on zoom, Hironaka and Suib introduced the benefit of working collaboratively. They mention that when they are working collaboratively, they can have that division of labor. They say, “working on your own and autonomously, you’re responsible for every aspect.” Working collaboratively is like a trade is what they describe; they take turns working on projects when they get burned out on some aspect of the project. Also, they can work on different parts of the project. Their final product surprises me in some ways from their collaborative works of art because I never considered the possibility that collaborative work can also create a coherent project.  They changed my mind about being collaborative artists. Hironaka and Suib give me the idea that as long as everything is being discussed throughout the project, no matter individual or collaborative works, it can all be fantastic to its audiences. 

By looking at Hironaka and Suib’s work, I feel like their work, image, sound, or music have that feeling of a perfect fit. And when I asked them how they decided on a specific version, they said that they do pass to each other; they both have to agree on sections and then have them combined to become the final product. The pass method can result in a back to forth edit. Throughout the edits, Hironaka and Suib may have different versions of the timeline. When disagreements occur, both will continuously review the products back and forth to settle.

I learned that it is super important to talk through every little piece of detail, and when disagreements happen, let it settle for several times, and then going back to it would be an ideal format. From them, I see the benefit of working collaboratively. I think having somebody working with me can help me push or develop the idea that I wanted to express from them. Maybe sometimes, collaborators can even help me to extend my ideas to another different level of understanding. In the same way, I can also provide different sights for others.