Susan Ciancolo
Feb. 27th, 2005 11:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusIn one of those co-incidences that never seems quite as surprising as it should, I spent Saturday lunchtime reading an interview with the New York artist Susan Ciancolo in a United Bamboo magazine I found in Bonjour Records, Daikanyama. Later, up on the 7th floor of Tower Records in Shibuya, I discovered Susan in person giving a little presentation of her new record, a raw, gentle, hippy-folksy music project called The Magic Star Band. I ended up going for dinner with some of the organisers of the show, Trees Are So Special, including Yoyo, an old friend from my Paris days.
I'm a big fan of Susan Ciancolo's art, which mixes installations with applied art -- cooking, sewing, mystical sketches, stuffed toys, odd and delicate clothes, music. I went three times to her Run Restaurant installation at Alleged Gallery in New York back in 2001, in which Susan constructed a sort of Japanese cafe from plywood, decorated it with folksy stuffed toys, drawings, and floor cushions, and invited guest cooks to prepare lunch menus. She herself was the "waitress", calm, self-possessed, self-effacing yet secretly controlling the whole thing. For some reason the installation appealed particularly to musicians; when I visited Bjork looked in, Michael Stipe was browsing the bookshop, and members of Blonde Redhead and the Magnetic Fields sat on the scatter cushions.
I wouldn't hestitate to call Susan's gentle, playful work "feminine". Flowers, embroidery, cooking all point us in the direction of what are traditionally thought of as feminine values. This work is much better received in Japan than America, where such values are seen by both the left and the right as suspect, so Susan comes here often. Asked by one of the Japanese girls in the audience at her presentation "What do you think of Japanese girls?", Susan replied in her characteristically gentle, slightly spaced tone, "I love them... When I'm here, I see the fashions worn by girls, and it's always been very beautiful to me, since I was coming, since '98. Because it's completely open and forward and I think no-one is afraid of what they wear and how they express... Yeah, it's so inspiring for me coming here."
As we walked to the restaurant through streets thronging with happy, excited Saturday night Shibuya crowds, I asked Susan about something I'd read in her interview. She spoke about a close encounter with death, and how it had changed her outlook, made her more spiritually-focussed, less willing to take life for granted. It turns out that she was assaulted last year in Prospect Park, near her Brooklyn apartment, robbed and badly beaten up. This happened during the day. A friend of Susan's walking with us, a fashion designer called Monica who lives on the Lower East Side, mentioned the recent murder on Clinton Street, where an actress was robbed and, when she challenged her assailants with "What are you going to do, shoot me?" was shot to death. Episodes like these give a real poignancy to Susan's phrase about Japanese women, "no-one is afraid". It isn't just women who feel this way here. I'm also unafraid as I walk around the streets of Tokyo. There are no gauntlets to run, no areas off limits. Tokyo citizens are almost brazenly unafraid. Sitting on the Chuo Line yesterday morning I was astonished to see the man opposite me take out a fat wad of ten thousand yen notes, count them in front of all the other passengers, and put them back in his inside pocket. There must have been $5000 worth there. Nobody in the West would be so trusting of fellow subway users (including an odd-looking foreigner with an eye patch).
I think this issue of safety in Japan is very much overlooked when people talk about the status of women here. Much is made by foreign observers of the problem of Japanese train gropers and the fetishistic mindset of many Japanese men, but the big picture is often overlooked: that this is an overwhelmingly safe place for women to walk about in. The very sexy and expressive way that Japanese women dress is a direct result of their sense of ease and security in public places. Safety and expressiveness go hand in hand. It's also important that Japan doesn't have the West's big race and poverty gaps. The New York assaults I mentioned were the result of one group of people feeling that acts of almost random violence in public places were justified by racial and economic injustice. Since the gaps between rich and poor, black and white are being increased by the current US administration, American cities will only become more dangerous in the short term. That means less expressiveness on the part of the citizens of American cities; restrictions on liberty of movement, restrictions on women's freedom. It might also explain the sharky menace, the brooding aggressive mood I noticed in the foreign magazine section of ABC the other day: in stark contrast to their Japanese equivalents, American magazine covers featured images of men in black walking through sheets of flame carrying machine-guns, dark-helmeted heads with hard cold light reflected in their visors, menacing rappers oozing "don't mess with me" attitude. The gentle imagery that Susan Ciancolo produces -- delicate drawings of deer, plants, girls, clothes -- could easily be found on a Japanese magazine cover (I bought a copy of Relax for Girls yesterday, a magazine which very much embraces this style). But it's getting increasingly hard to imagine it featured anywhere in an American magazine. Neither America's left nor its right wants girly girls or "girly men". In an unfortunate cultural pincer movement, the US left (in the shape of feminism and the ideology of equality of opportunity) has masculinized women just in time to co-incide with the right's masculinization of the streets and the world by sending in soldiers, increasing social tensions, upping hatred and resentment.
The paradox is that the more the US becomes an Israel-style security state, the less secure it becomes. You address security by working on its root causes -- hatred, resentment, poverty -- rather than filling your cities, and the world, with machine-gun-toting gooks. In a recent column for RealTokyo magazine, Maeda Keizo describes what it's like for a Japanese to visit New York now: "I'm in New York once again. Even though prepared to find security measures being drastically re-inforced since 9.11, the endless lines at the customs and the fingerprints and facial portraits they're taking of travellers don't exactly make entering the USA a nice adventure. Once in the city I find policemen with huge dogs all over the place, and although I understand that this is the price people have to pay for an almost impersonally clean subway and safety in everyday life, I have the feeling that it's a bit too much. Due to the watching eyes I'm constantly feeling in my neck I'm getting slightly depressed. But somehow the people I meet and the usual cafes I visit again this time help me clear up."
It's another sunny day in Tokyo, crows are cawing outside my window and I'm just about to catch a Chuo line train to Kiba to see the show of art by women at MoT, Life, Actually curated by Michiko Kasahara. I'm sure the work will offer new insights on this troubling question of the relationship between security, expressiveness, and the feminine.
I'm a big fan of Susan Ciancolo's art, which mixes installations with applied art -- cooking, sewing, mystical sketches, stuffed toys, odd and delicate clothes, music. I went three times to her Run Restaurant installation at Alleged Gallery in New York back in 2001, in which Susan constructed a sort of Japanese cafe from plywood, decorated it with folksy stuffed toys, drawings, and floor cushions, and invited guest cooks to prepare lunch menus. She herself was the "waitress", calm, self-possessed, self-effacing yet secretly controlling the whole thing. For some reason the installation appealed particularly to musicians; when I visited Bjork looked in, Michael Stipe was browsing the bookshop, and members of Blonde Redhead and the Magnetic Fields sat on the scatter cushions.
I wouldn't hestitate to call Susan's gentle, playful work "feminine". Flowers, embroidery, cooking all point us in the direction of what are traditionally thought of as feminine values. This work is much better received in Japan than America, where such values are seen by both the left and the right as suspect, so Susan comes here often. Asked by one of the Japanese girls in the audience at her presentation "What do you think of Japanese girls?", Susan replied in her characteristically gentle, slightly spaced tone, "I love them... When I'm here, I see the fashions worn by girls, and it's always been very beautiful to me, since I was coming, since '98. Because it's completely open and forward and I think no-one is afraid of what they wear and how they express... Yeah, it's so inspiring for me coming here."
As we walked to the restaurant through streets thronging with happy, excited Saturday night Shibuya crowds, I asked Susan about something I'd read in her interview. She spoke about a close encounter with death, and how it had changed her outlook, made her more spiritually-focussed, less willing to take life for granted. It turns out that she was assaulted last year in Prospect Park, near her Brooklyn apartment, robbed and badly beaten up. This happened during the day. A friend of Susan's walking with us, a fashion designer called Monica who lives on the Lower East Side, mentioned the recent murder on Clinton Street, where an actress was robbed and, when she challenged her assailants with "What are you going to do, shoot me?" was shot to death. Episodes like these give a real poignancy to Susan's phrase about Japanese women, "no-one is afraid". It isn't just women who feel this way here. I'm also unafraid as I walk around the streets of Tokyo. There are no gauntlets to run, no areas off limits. Tokyo citizens are almost brazenly unafraid. Sitting on the Chuo Line yesterday morning I was astonished to see the man opposite me take out a fat wad of ten thousand yen notes, count them in front of all the other passengers, and put them back in his inside pocket. There must have been $5000 worth there. Nobody in the West would be so trusting of fellow subway users (including an odd-looking foreigner with an eye patch).
I think this issue of safety in Japan is very much overlooked when people talk about the status of women here. Much is made by foreign observers of the problem of Japanese train gropers and the fetishistic mindset of many Japanese men, but the big picture is often overlooked: that this is an overwhelmingly safe place for women to walk about in. The very sexy and expressive way that Japanese women dress is a direct result of their sense of ease and security in public places. Safety and expressiveness go hand in hand. It's also important that Japan doesn't have the West's big race and poverty gaps. The New York assaults I mentioned were the result of one group of people feeling that acts of almost random violence in public places were justified by racial and economic injustice. Since the gaps between rich and poor, black and white are being increased by the current US administration, American cities will only become more dangerous in the short term. That means less expressiveness on the part of the citizens of American cities; restrictions on liberty of movement, restrictions on women's freedom. It might also explain the sharky menace, the brooding aggressive mood I noticed in the foreign magazine section of ABC the other day: in stark contrast to their Japanese equivalents, American magazine covers featured images of men in black walking through sheets of flame carrying machine-guns, dark-helmeted heads with hard cold light reflected in their visors, menacing rappers oozing "don't mess with me" attitude. The gentle imagery that Susan Ciancolo produces -- delicate drawings of deer, plants, girls, clothes -- could easily be found on a Japanese magazine cover (I bought a copy of Relax for Girls yesterday, a magazine which very much embraces this style). But it's getting increasingly hard to imagine it featured anywhere in an American magazine. Neither America's left nor its right wants girly girls or "girly men". In an unfortunate cultural pincer movement, the US left (in the shape of feminism and the ideology of equality of opportunity) has masculinized women just in time to co-incide with the right's masculinization of the streets and the world by sending in soldiers, increasing social tensions, upping hatred and resentment.
The paradox is that the more the US becomes an Israel-style security state, the less secure it becomes. You address security by working on its root causes -- hatred, resentment, poverty -- rather than filling your cities, and the world, with machine-gun-toting gooks. In a recent column for RealTokyo magazine, Maeda Keizo describes what it's like for a Japanese to visit New York now: "I'm in New York once again. Even though prepared to find security measures being drastically re-inforced since 9.11, the endless lines at the customs and the fingerprints and facial portraits they're taking of travellers don't exactly make entering the USA a nice adventure. Once in the city I find policemen with huge dogs all over the place, and although I understand that this is the price people have to pay for an almost impersonally clean subway and safety in everyday life, I have the feeling that it's a bit too much. Due to the watching eyes I'm constantly feeling in my neck I'm getting slightly depressed. But somehow the people I meet and the usual cafes I visit again this time help me clear up."
It's another sunny day in Tokyo, crows are cawing outside my window and I'm just about to catch a Chuo line train to Kiba to see the show of art by women at MoT, Life, Actually curated by Michiko Kasahara. I'm sure the work will offer new insights on this troubling question of the relationship between security, expressiveness, and the feminine.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 02:25 am (UTC)I also loved the freedom in Japan. It occured to me as I was purchasing NO WOUND OF SKIN bandages in a pharmacy that a convenience store heist in Japan would net a thief hundreds, if not thousands of dollars worth of 10000 yen notes, unlike in America. Yet hardly ever do people consider this, much act upon it.
The violence seems to be...far more concentrated, and direct.
It was strange going there this summer, in the midst of an unprecedented heat wave I've only experienced in my home climate of Georgia, USA...and to be in such a large city that was populated not with pigeons but with these laughing, dancing, remarkable crows.
I've enjoyed your entries immensely, as much as I've enjoyed your music over the decades. May your life continued to be filled with the new and the intriguing.
Regards,
maldorora
Creativity
Date: 2005-02-27 05:59 am (UTC)Marxy
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 02:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 02:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 02:54 am (UTC)Another example of things gone wrong with America is the kind of Japanese movies that the American audiences like. It's all about Battle Royale, Takashi Miike and other geeky, violent pictures. A film like Shimotsuma Monogatari would never find any resonance in America.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 03:05 am (UTC)"The Friendly Album, songs of connectedness, situatedness, friendliness, gentleness, Cafe Apres Midi atmosphere, Brecht To Be Friendly poem, Japanese Brasilia, honey mellow, Sunday People, Domingo, zero threat, confrontation."
The paradox is that I'm conceiving this gentleness as a very aggressive assault on aggression itself. "I hate hate", in the words of Cornelius.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 07:41 pm (UTC)otta spookie
Date: 2005-02-27 08:34 pm (UTC)the spooky intermezzi are almost macho in comparison to the feminin otto songs. alors, entre les deux mon coeur balance.
eric
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 03:02 am (UTC)I was just discussing with my mother, how sad it is that for a woman to be successful in some fields, she must be a man, and has begun to be viewed as just... some sort of man. The funny shaped guy.
I feel like... we have not been made any more equal, just changed. Homogenized somehow. And the expression of femininity is a deviation, the invitation to inequality.
I'm interested to see your comments on the show you're going to see at MoT.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 07:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 04:13 am (UTC)Regardless, though, I still think tales of NY's violence can be overrated. For a recent trip to NYC, my girlfriend and I stayed in the notorious Washington Heights. There were a few sketchy fellows, but all-in-all I never felt particularly unsafe. I suppose a large part of it is getting used to the fact that a lot of people are hostile-looking but not necessarily dangerous. People in NYC tend to be a little more abrasive, I've found.
On that note, my cousin, who was going to college in Baltimore, Maryland, was mugged in the open. And baltimore is supposed to be a safer city. I suppose it really all depends on being in the wrong place at the wrong time in the good ol' USA. Oh-- and looking rich and white. Poor muggers wouldn't get anything from me-- I rarely ever carry money (mostly because I don't have it).
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 04:46 am (UTC)While our block in Prospect Heights was a filthy and at times unpleasant place, both me and my wife, who is Japanese, never felt personally threatened with violence. And we were living among the "one group of people" Momus mentions in his post. I think he is overstating the case for violence in NYC. While there continue's to be horrific instances of violence in NYC, as well as other cites (http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=2&id=328872), crime overall in NYC has declined dramatically over the last 20 years.
But, yes, I do agree overall with the marked feeling of security one feels here as compared back with the States. There's just not the same feeling of menace.
Just felt the need to defend my old 'hood.
Velocity
Date: 2005-02-27 06:00 am (UTC)Japan is less dangerous than NYC, but getting more dangerous.
Marxy
Re: Velocity
Date: 2005-02-27 08:54 pm (UTC)A bit of perspective
Date: 2005-02-27 07:19 am (UTC)And yet many of the women dressed as if they were living in Miami.
W
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 08:03 am (UTC)Never wondering who is at the door, just shouting "It's open! Come in!"
Gated communities are very much of the moment in new London development. They do nothing to pacify the area, only further enrage immiserified local inhabitants.
The Friendly Album sounds great! I head to NYC next Saturday, I'm curious to see it in the current climate.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 08:15 am (UTC)There seems to be an almost total absence of casual violence in Korean culture. There is also very little counter-culture or youth rebellion (as we understand it) of any kind, and things like graffiti and vandalism are pretty much alien concepts to Koreans. I believe, though I've no experience of it, that organised crime and the violence attached to that are significant problems. Perhaps if I had my own small business I'd have a different perspective on the safety issue, but in terms of walking the streets, both I (as a highly conspicuous foreigner) and my female friends (both Korean and foreign) do not worry at all. This in a city of 15 million, backstreets and main drags, even at 3 in the morning.
It's certainly a huge contrast with Brighton and (shudder) London. On the regular occasions I'm back in the UK there is a palpable tension, a malicious threat, hanging in the air, oozing out of every pub door I pass as I hurry home, criss-crossing the road to avoid boisterous groups of young men travelling in the opposite direction.
The point you make about the far narrower race and wealth gaps that exist in Tokyo also rings true, possibly even more so(?) for Seoul, but I'm not sure about the girls' appearance. 'Femininity' (as per your reference) yes, expressiveness, definitely no. I think there might be more deep-rooted cultural factors at play there.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 08:24 am (UTC)I have really been enjoying your observations lately. They've been inspiring thoughts to chew on. Keep them coming..
Ally
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 08:36 am (UTC)Are there not any men in Japan ? Your experiences in just six months are shocking, and I can't imagine how I would feel if I lived in that kind of environment, but come on, I don't understand what this comment has to do with anything.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 09:45 am (UTC)Violence is likely to come from very specific people, and most of us who live in cities have memorised the specific visual codes of this kind of threat. Who these people might be, what they look like. Weirdly enough, the semiology of violence is mutual. We are attacked, often, by those who look like the kind of people who would attack us, in exactly the places we would expect to be attacked. The etiquette is observed on both sides. When the attack comes, there's a horrible inevitability about it. As Susan said, "I knew I shouldn't have been there alone."
One of the most interesting things, for me, about gangsta rap is how the artists use threat codes to their own advantage. They manage to turn a code of threatening behaviour into a valuable commercial attribute, an entertaining pose. Unfortunately, this also means that a tiny minority of black males is profiting from a semiology of menace which, for the vast majority of their brothers, leads to vicious circles of crime, exclusion, unemployment and despair. Of course, it's the entertainment entrepreneurs who get all the attention. Their success seems to betoken success for the whole community, but nothing could be further from the truth. Their success as "entrepreneurs of menace" actually comes at the direct expense of the communities they claim to support and represent. It's a classic American story, an example of how equality of opportunity inevitably entails inequality of result.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 10:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 10:21 am (UTC)It's worth remembering, of course, that the most dangerous thing for all of us in cities is cars. And in Japan there's an added danger, earthquakes.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 11:12 pm (UTC)The point I was trying to make is specific to the place in which I live. No, I'm not threatened by every man I see on the street. But were there to be any violence directed toward me, the chances are almost 100% that it would from a man. So my "one night sans men" idea is the idea of removing all possibility of threat, and obviously in the process removing those who wouldn't have been threats otherwise.
Of course I'm not on a crusade to put such a stupid idea in practice. It is merely an exercise in thought--realizing where (as a young woman) my fear (for my physical safety) stems from.
And although the politician says that everyone is at risk from everyone else, I don't know that a man can understand what it is like to walk home late at night as a woman, no matter how she is dressed. It is a psychological state of mind that is imprisoning, and is violence in its own right, though without a specific aggressor. Ranging from an invasive gaze to offensive comments to worse, there is a whole gamut of factors that contribute to an atomsphere of violence against women. And in there is the added factor of sexual violence, of which women are the largest group of victims. This atmosphere is very real.
And I apologize. I absolutely hate making generalizing statements, especially when it relates to gender. I can't stand it from others, and especially not from myself. I could say then, as a person perceived as feminine, or weaker, I am at risk. I know that there are many men who can understand the fear that I am talking about. But now I'm getting worked up and think I'm losing my train of thought.
I don't mean to offend, but this is something that is very real and very personal to me. I've gone off topic here from the broader causes and roots of societal trends of violence, and brought it down to a personal anecdotal observation.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 12:03 pm (UTC)Huh? So, by this logic the inverse must also always be true, "inequality of opportunity inevitably entails equality of result"? And, why is this "classically" American. Societies that have extremely narrow windows of "opportunity", can also, and often do, produce shocking examples of violence.
Also, while you bizarrely single out gansta rap as a prime source of urban violence, the fact is the race relations, between blacks and whites, in the States have been steadily improving... in fact, since the mainstreaming of rap. Granted, the pose of most rap is one of menace, but maybe because of that it somehow, ironically, brings young people together. Well, young Americans at least. Oh wait, rap is a global phenomenon now.
I'm not a big fan of rap, but this singling out of it seems like a bizarre turn.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 12:56 pm (UTC)No, not at all! If I argue that "Any girl could look like Paris Hilton, but only one can be her" do I also have to defend the statement that "No girl can look like Paris Hilton, but any girl can be her"?
Also, I never said gangsta rap was a prime source of urban violence! I said it was interesting that the etiquette of menace is turned into a kind of theatre in gangsta, and that while this theatre makes a few entrepreneurs and stars very rich, it doesn't help the average black man in the US to find work or integrate socially. In fact, it hinders that process by perpetuating stereotypes of irresponsible criminality. I don't think it's gangsta that has improved relations between blacks and whites, it's more likely to be 9/11, and the emergence of Islamist terrorists as the number one "Other" and bogeyman.
I suppose you could make the case that now the US is a sort of criminal delinquent on the world stage, though, gangsta is the only music violent enough to sum up the national psyche. It's interesting that reggae, with its peace vibes and strong moral values, has never taken off in the US. I suspect that if every rap star in the US were to embrace reggae and its values tomorrow, all the white kids would stop listening to black music immediately. "What's all this shit about peace, love and righteousness inna Babylon?"
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 01:20 pm (UTC)And rap, gansta rap, and all it's poses of menace is no longer exclusively an American product. It's global, and it's local, and it's quite huge right here in Japan. You only have to turn on any of the music channels to see local artists doing gansta rap.
Reggae? Have you heard Dancehall...? yes, the reggae of Bob Marley was all about "peace, love and righteousness inna Babylon" but it's been a looong time since those days. It's a much different tune you can hear blasting out of car speakers these days.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 06:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 12:31 pm (UTC)Berlin is also such a place, a big city that feels incredibly safe. You don't see people counting big wads of money in public, but with plenty of different races all over the place, skinheads and many poor people, i often have to remind myself that walking through a completely dark park at night in the turkish quarter with my expensive laptop on me might not be such a good idea until i see an old lady walking her dog in the same park. I live at street level, with a big window that could be very easily broken in but nothing ever happens...it really makes a difference to just hang out in the streets, feeling no menace whatsoever, everybody is relaxed because there's plenty of space and the wealth gaps are not huge...
but also, it's not a buzzing place like NY or Tokyo either, the money doesn't flow big-time, there's a small-town boredom always waiting around the corner...
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 12:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 12:49 pm (UTC)DUring the shower i've taken now i've thought that maybe german kids who wear brands are maybe object of more violence than we poor looking expats get. i don't know many kids like that, though. If it's like that, i'd recommend Ally to consider changing her look rather than moving away from NY!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-28 02:30 am (UTC)That's too bad. Having moved to the USA (LA home of the drive-by shooting and carjacking) from Canada, I can recall feeling very paranoid at first. I think it is part of the process of developing reflexes and intuition which help to protect you from dangerous places and situations.
After moving to Japan, it was a pleasant relief to feel this behaviour armor dissolve, and my sense of trust return.
I've visited about 30 countries, but the USA is the only place I've ever felt that extreme caution in public places was a life or death affair.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 08:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-28 02:24 am (UTC)There are relatively few police on the ground in (deep) South Central LA. It's far too dangerous. The patroling of LA is mostly done by helicopters, formerly piloted by Vietnam vets.
SUSAN CIANCOLO INTERVIEW
Date: 2005-02-27 09:13 am (UTC)Me thinks Japan isn't all that safe after all.
Re: SUSAN CIANCOLO INTERVIEW
Date: 2005-02-27 10:05 am (UTC)I'm just back from the women's art exhibition at MoT. There was a striking absence of criticism of men on the part of the women artists. One video piece was presented by a stereotypical pervert, a balding Araki sukebe type in a Hawaian shirt, but he came over as a rather sentimental character, delighted by his own fetishes and trying to overcome the boredom of his own life as well as those of the suburban housewives he letches after. The best piece, for me, was a kind of temple to the glory of the penis, a huge pillar-like monolith by Akiko Mizoguchi covered in LED lights. These begin to flash, creating a motion effect up and down the pillar. The sound effects are of a heart pumping and a man breathing heavily. The pace picks up, and eventually the phallic monolith -- something out of Kubrick's "2001" -- explodes into orgasm. A text on the label says "My lover shoots his load inside me. The sperm flows in my body. It is the moment when I feel most alive."
Re: SUSAN CIANCOLO INTERVIEW
Date: 2005-02-27 02:32 pm (UTC)many japanese women who listen to momus are?
Re: SUSAN CIANCOLO INTERVIEW
Date: 2005-02-27 07:03 pm (UTC)Stop running away
Date: 2005-02-27 04:03 pm (UTC)So Fresh, So Clean...
Date: 2005-02-27 05:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-27 06:51 pm (UTC)On a similar note, this:
Brian Sedgemoor's last speech in The House of Commons (http://my.opera.com/quentinscrisp/journal/67)
bantam cock beer boys
Date: 2005-02-27 07:04 pm (UTC)is that where you got your boys from?
erik
Race and poverty gaps
Date: 2005-02-28 12:08 pm (UTC)Then of course some survivors of the atomic bomb attacks have been discriminated against to the extend that they would pretend to be burakumin (afraid, even among those people, to reveal the truth.)
I wouldn't comment on whether the 'situation' is better or worse in the USA (or for that matter in other many other countries, developed world and not), but I suggest you show them some respect and compassion by acknowledging that they exist.
Ostracism is violence too.
Re: Race and poverty gaps
Date: 2005-02-28 12:18 pm (UTC)Re: Race and poverty gaps
Date: 2005-02-28 11:04 pm (UTC)My reply to this is that you check the incarceration rates for the USA. Now check the racial makeup of the inmates of these overcrowded jails.
Next check the racial makeup of the armed forces on the ground in Iraq, or in any other war of the past 50 years or so which the USA has waged, for example the war on southeast asia. While you are at it, check out the racial composition of the lowest ranks of the fighting forces, the guys doing the grunge work as it were, and check out the racial composition of the casaulties, the bodies in the bags as it were. Notice any consistent patterns in all of these statistics?
Yes, like anywhere else in the world, there are discriminated groups in Japan. Some of the B-people you mention even live in concentrated areas. But unless you knew what to look for you would have a very difficult time knowing that you are in such an area. But try going into any Black or Latino inner city area in the USA, if you want to risk it that is. Pretty frightening isn't it?
Now mull these facts over and let's hear your opinion again about the very small percentarge (1-2%) of the Japanese population that is burakumin and which suffers some illegal discrimination as a result of that fact. It is nothing compared to the very real racial discrimination problems in the USA.
The MOMUS School of Art and Design aka MO-ART
Date: 2005-02-28 08:16 pm (UTC)Kim
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-01 05:34 am (UTC)