Artist's Statement

In Tokyo the night sky shines silvery purple, not quite the color of television tuned to a dead channel. Subway-staff on the platforms push commuters into trains so that each car can be filled with as many people as possible. I was one of those commuters. I lived under that sky, so bright from light pollution that the buildings stand out as shadows against it. Some people might find these things repulsive, but I found them inspiring, and in the case of the sky, eerily beautiful.

My work focuses on the urban landscape of Tokyo and its commuter lifestyle. While living in Japan, I spent almost four hours each week-day commuting from home to school. Since returning from Japan, I have elaborated on the theme of commuting and the day-to-day lifestyle of Tokyoites in my paintings and prints.

My status as an outsider in the racially homogenous Japanese culture works as a double-edged sword. While I can never assimilate and become fully accepted as a member of Japanese society, at the same time, I am afforded movement outside the system that a native Japanese person could never have. This status grants me a unique perspective different from that of a cultural insider.

In my photographs and collaged silkscreen prints, I explore the impact that the mixing of traditional Japanese culture and imported Western culture in contemporary Japan has on the citizens of Tokyo. Modern Japan is a mixture of these two influences, which has resulted in a unique culture in itself. At a first glance, the clean and relatively crime free Japan might look like a paradise to a tourist or someone unfamiliar with Japanese society. But underneath the surface of cherry blossoms and cute animated characters lay rigid social structures and conflicting cultural values that clearly have their effects on the citizens of Tokyo. In my work, I delve into these shared experiences, dealing with humanistic issues such as feelings of autonomy (or a lack there of) in a large group of people, gender roles and stereotypes, and issues of power and authority as seen in the urban environment.

In Tokyo the night sky shines silvery purple, not quite the color of television tuned to a dead channel. Subway workers on the platforms push commuters into trains so that each car can be filled with as many people as possible. I was one of those commuters. I have seen that sky, so bright from light pollution that the buildings stand out as shadows against it. Some people might find these things repulsive, but I found them inspiring in a way, and, in the case of the sky, eerily beautiful.

My work focuses on the urban landscape of Tokyo and its commuter culture. While living in Japan for one year, I spent almost four hours each week-day commuting from home to school. I came to find the culture of the trains and my fellow commuters immensely fascinating. Since it is not uncommon for people living in the Tokyo area to have such a long commute, the trains and the time spent in the transit system comes to represent a major part of people’s lives. While my work is about the (Japanese) people living in Tokyo, it is also about myself and my experiences there. My artwork presents life in Japan as I experienced it from my own perspective.

For the past two years, the theme of transit and the commuter culture in Japan has been a mainstay of my artwork. Walker Evans himself said of his photographs of people on the New York subway taken in the 1930s, "(On the subway) [t]he guard is down and the mask is off: even more than when in lone bedrooms (where there are mirrors). People's faces are in a naked repose down in the subway." While passengers are crammed into the cars until they are suspended by the force of the masses of humanity, people tend to direct their gaze away from each other. People are not concerned with the others around them so much as they are centered in the personal world inside their minds. Some try to read a newspaper, others close their eyes, but everyone is in some way trying to escape away from the situation they are in. However, I found the situation inspiring, taking the opportunity to observe the people around me.

My status as an outsider in the relatively racially homogenous Japanese culture works as a double-edged sword. While I can never assimilate and become fully accepted as a member of Japanese society, at the same time, I think that my position as a non-Japanese gives me a perspective different from that of native Japanese. Often the mundane and banal aspects of our existence are overlooked because they are so obvious that they can hide in plain sight (either because they are so mundane they are unnoticed or because people choose to ignore them.) However, with a fresh pair of eyes, I notice the things that slip past the consciousness of the Japanese. By creating artwork about these mundane aspects of existence, I can bring them to the attention of my audience and show a Japan that Japanese themselves might not notice.

Modern Japan is a fusion of both traditional Japanese culture – itself an amalgamation of indigenous Japanese and Chinese elements - and Western culture first imported en masse at the end of the nineteenth century. This creates a society which contains elements of both Japan and the West. At first glance, the elements of imported culture, skyscrapers, trains, business men in suits, etc, may seem to dominate Japanese culture. However, I believe that there is a pervasive undercurrent of traditional culture which subverts and distorts the imported, Western culture, creating a new culture that is uniquely Japanese. In my work, I try to show how these two cultures combine and how that impacts the life of everyday people.

My work highlights the underlying and sometimes obscured current of traditional culture in contemporary society through the use of traditional symbols and motifs, such as repeated figures and patterning. These symbols and motifs are immediately apparent to a Japanese audience or someone intimately familiar with Japanese culture. For the viewer who is largely unfamiliar with Japan, my work highlights the subtle ways that contemporary Japanese society is similar to and different from the viewer’s own culture and allows the viewer to walk away with a heightened understanding of both Japan and themselves.

To this end, I explore through my work the impact that the mixing of traditional Japanese culture and imported Western culture in contemporary Japan has on the citizens of Tokyo. Modern Japan is a mixture of these two influences, resulting in a unique culture in itself. At a first glance, the clean and relatively crime-free Japan might look like a paradise to a tourist or someone unfamiliar with Japanese society. But underneath the surface of a society often associated with cherry blossoms and cute animated characters lie rigid social structures and conflicting cultural values that clearly have their effects on the citizens of Tokyo. In my work, I delve into the experiences of Tokyoites as I experienced them, dealing with humanistic issues such as feelings of autonomy (or a lack thereof) in a crowd, gender roles and stereotypes, and issues of power and authority as seen in the urban environment.

Walker Evans, “Walker Evans: The Unposed Portrait,” Harper’s Bazaar 95 (March 1962), 120-125