SUPER STARS

About SUPER STARS PROJECT:

Leslie Kee was born and raised in Singapore, and moved to Japan in 1993. He debuted as a photographer after graduating from the Tokyo School of Visual Arts in 1997. His work as a photographer for major fashion magazines and advertising campaigns took him to various parts of Asia. He lived in New York for 4 years before moving back to Japan in 2005.

After the Asian tsunami disaster in 2004, Leslie started his lifework project, SUPER STARS, which is dedicated to the victims of the tsunami. The theme of the project is "ASIA IS ONE" and he devoted all his energy and time to completing this project. With the support and collaboration of over 300 Asian celebrities, an art photobook titled SUPER STARS BY LESLIE KEE was finally published in 2006. The book costs 30,000 yen (USD300) and contains the pictures of all the participating artists. All of the photos in the book were taken by Leslie, with creative input from each of the celebrities. This book is a limited edition and there are only 7,000 copies available. Each copy comes with Leslie's personal autograph. You can purchase this photobook through Leslie Kee's official website. Proceeds from the photobook were donated to the victims of the tsunami. Leslie also published "The Making of Super Stars by Leslie Kee", which contains interviews of some of the participating artists, including Gackt's. You can find a translation of the interview in our Translations section.

The first SUPER STARS exhibition was held in Tokyo in November 2006. It was up for display for more than a week in Omotesando Hills, a famous high-end shopping mall in Shibuya. 170 pictures of Japanese and other Asian artists were put on display. The pictures were displayed in four rows on the walls of the exhibition hall. The photos were arranged in such a way that they go around the room in a circle. The second rows had the themes of SUPER STARS written beside the pictures of the artists, such as Family, Survival, Destiny, Asia, Star, Treasure, Love, Bravery and so forth. Gackt's picture was in the bottom row, almost directly across the entrance.

Since there was such limited space, only half of the pictures taken for the project could be displayed in the gallery. However, there were a few samples of the photobook placed around the hall for us to look through. All the pictures are very artistic and reveal a different side to the artists which we may never see otherwise. Some of the pictures might shock viewers, since they show the artists naked or revealing parts of their bodies. Nevertheless, the pictures should not be taken lightly upon just because Leslie and the artists dared to step out of the box to express their true selves.

Other Japanese artists who took part in this project include Amuro Namie, Ayumi Hamasaki, Ayaka Hirahara, Chemistry, Hidetoshi Nakata, Koda Kumi, Matsutoya Yumi, Mika Nakashima, Norika Fujiwara, Ou Yang Fei Fei, Takuya Kimura, TM Revolution, etc.
(Please go to the official website for SUPER STARS PROJECT for the full list of artists which took part in this project)

The exhibition in Hong Kong was held one week after the Tokyo exhibition and the local artists came down on its opening day. In February 2007, Leslie opened another exhibition in Osaka, Japan and in April, he took the SUPER STARS exhibition to his home town, Singapore.

Background Story:

Gackt was one of the last few artists to take part in this project. He first heard about Leslie from Taiwanese artist, Wang Lee Hom. Leslie initially contacted Gackt and tried to get him to participate, but since Gackt didn't know much about the project at that point, he declined the offer. Later, another friend of his from America told him about Leslie, which got him interested in the project. Gackt contacted Leslie, and after they had a talk, discovered that Leslie had the same ideas and thoughts as he did in uniting Asia. At that point, he finally agreed to participate in this project.

During their meeting, Gackt talked about what he thinks he can do as an Asian and Leslie told him that he wanted to capture "Gackt's image of himself". Gackt wanted to show his respect and admiration for the artists who took part in the project and so he decided to have all of their names printed onto his face and shoulder. Applying the makeup alone took six and a half hours, and shooting took another hour. Among all the names are the words "We are all Asian."

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