Tomie arai biography of abraham
Abraham..
Godzilla members Arlan Huang and Tomie Arai were involved in the Basement Workshop and the shaping of the Chinatown History Project and MOCA's.
Arai, Tomie
Other Names: 新居富枝
Female
"In 1983, I began a series of drawings of Asian women which were inspired by the masks and heavily stylized imagery found in traditional Japanese art.
As a third generation American of Japanese ancestry – a Sansei and a native New Yorker, I’ve tried to incorporate the influence of both cultures in my work. These drawings were part of an effort to create an artistic language based on the unique experience of Asians in America.
Drawing masks and portraits were a way for me to understand the stereotypic imagery of Asian women; stereotypes which contributed to the painful formation of my own identity as an Asian growing up in this country.
The faces I’ve drawn, perceived through Western eyes, may seem both disturbing and intriguing; but passive, repressed, expressionless, doll-like, inscrutable, exotic; -- I found that they were not so different in spirit from the quiet/angry faces of many women I have known.
Since this series,
