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Living in the Hyphen-Space

I am exploring the hyphen-space, the fertile space between two cultures that results in the miscegenation of being a Japanese-Canadian, a Hapa, a person of mixed racial heritage with partial roots in Asian ancestry. Art is often an expression of identity. Through my art I search for a greater understanding of my heritage as a Japanese-Canadian and the development of my identity and taste in aesthetics of Japanese traditions that I developed through childhood influences such as being dressed up in kimonos and looking at Shodo calligraphy.

While I focus specifically on myself as a Yonsei, a fourth-generation Japanese-Canadian descending from the Japanese Diaspora and its Nikkei members that first relocated to Canada, my artwork is open to a more universal interpretation. As Canada becomes increasingly multi-ethnic many people can relate to similar intercultural processes and cultural mixing.

Through photo based printmaking and woodcuts I use images of myself, symbols such as kanji or family crests, and traditional Japanese articles that compare, contrast and overlap creating a visual representation of my ethnic self and modern day influences, a conceptual communication of Japanese, Canadian and the fusion of those identities merging together. The intermixture of elements and the layering and contrasting of images emphasizes the merging of my ethnology into a hybrid of my own cultural mix.

I am influenced by artists such as Kip Fulbeck, Steven Aishman, Lori Kay and Laura Kina who embrace their mixed race and champion Hapa’s and their importance to society, especially as the population of North America is increasingly becoming of mixed ancestry and we live in a world of globalization.