Through my work, I pose questions regarding an individual’s perceived knowledge of gender, race, and sexuality. For the past several years, I have been investigating the psychology behind the unique social behaviors and fantasies of Japanese women, and the relationship of two imperialisms, Western and Japanese. My critical view of the culture, religion and traditions of Japan was formed during my childhood in Osaka, where I first observed the unequal status of “Others” – women and minority groups, immigrants from other Asian countries and descendents of the lowest classes. In addition, growing up in the final years of the Japanese postwar economic miracle, I experienced the social and cultural stimulation, as well as the confusion, of the rapid absorption of Western values by Japanese tradition. Lastly, my recent move to the U.S. has added a global context and an external point of view to the construct of my examination of Japanese culture. In order to speak to a broad audience with a variety of cultural backgrounds, I often incorporate historical elements and popular culture in my work. My current project, Samsara Pleasure Principle, 2009, is a video installation alluding to the Japanese people’s never-ending desires caused by the social oppression brought about by the emergence of global cultures. The work consists of a mural size (approx. 8x12’) video projection in a darkroom showing the hyper-realistic image of a floral bouquet in a vase on a table set against a black background. I use deformed artificial flowers and a plastic worm with a smiley face to reference kitsch mass-production and Japanese “cute toys.” For the arrangement, a hybrid of two styles: Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) and a 17th century Dutch Still-life, are used to illustrate the merging of Western culture with Japanese culture through history. Both styles signify the impermanence of the temporal world, but the irony is that the work also represents the excesses produced by both western capitalism and contemporary Japanese consumerism. The Dutch were the only westerners permitted to come to Japan during 250 years of Japanese national isolation in the Edo period. Each flower of the bouquet moves independently in super slow motion as if the movie were a time-lapse, but also moves somewhat unrealistically. The flowers grow hair, release liquid, change color, bloom and wilt, etc. In addition, the illusionary flower arrangement is floating in the space created by the projection of light, and gradually reveals the impossibility of the synthetic movement. This impossibility raises a question about the subject’s reality and the mechanisms of human desire. Among many popular cultures, I’m especially interested in media culture, and in Japanese TV in particular. Since the Japanese TV audience is the largest in the world, TV has a huge influence on the society as a whole. Through variety shows, dramas, anime, and commercials, TV provides the models of gender and the criteria for morality. Just as it does in the U.S., in fact, the traditional gender roles of Japan’s patriarchal social structure are being constantly reinforced by the male dominated TV industry. The recent global popularity of Japanese anime and fashion, is often taken out of context in Western culture, and misunderstood. I attempt to deconstruct them and reveal what is motivating Japanese pop culture. For example, Public Bath, 2008 is a three-channel video installation, which reveals sadomasochistic characteristics and the objectification of women in the male dominant Japanese TV culture. The mirrored image projected onto two screens is of the Hot Bath Commercial series in the early ’90s TV program, Super Jockey. In the video, a young female model changes her bikini to another bikini in a small cylindrical changing room with a thin curtain and then goes into very hot water (124 F) in a transparent tub. The close up camera view shows her face and body writhing in agony while she tries to stay in hot water since the longer her body touches to the sensor placed in the bottom of the tub, the longer she can show her video clip to advertise. A center screen in between the mirrored images, shows bathing women from Ukiyo-e prints erotically floating upwards. Along with these images, English text describes the TV program. In this work, I strive to raise audience’s awareness about women’s objectification both in private and public spaces. The goal of my art practice is to expose the social stereotypes of and blur the boundaries of dualistic ideas of gender, race, and sexuality.