Beyond the Future: Papers from the Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Thai women artists . Additionally, through international linkages and communication, contemporary Thai women artists have learned more about themselves, their culture and identity; they are able to express themselves innovatively to their new audiences . The impact on the present contemporary art scene by women will continue to intensify due to these i nternational art exchanges . A PERSPECTIVE FROM JAPAN Eri ko Osaka I am the last speaker today. We have gone over time and I suppose you are very tired by now, but I would appreciate it if you could stay for another ten minutes. Each speaker has given an interesting talk about their own country's women artists. Personally, I prefer not to categorise them as 'women artists'. Work should not be evaluated on the basis of gender d ifferences, b1;.1t on the qual ity and the style of the work itself. I bel ieve that excellent work is that wh ich pursues a universal theme for human beings, one that transcends gender differences. But unfortunately, I don't have time to argue about this today. Instead , I would l ike to introduce several Japanese women artists, along with their works. M i ka Yoshizawa Yosh izawa has been showing her work since the 1 980s. In recent works, her painting has become more energetic, and depicts organic shapes, wh ich make viewers feel the joy of l ife. ( I assume this is partly because she has recently had a baby). Yoshiko Shimada When the art world started to pay attention to her, she was working on the theme of 'military prostitutes'. This work was based on the fact that, during World War 2, the Japanese m ilitary required women - including many Korean women - to work as prostitutes for the sold iers . Artwork such as this, which deals with pol itical issues, is very rarely seen in Japan . Her work has generated public debate, and received both positive and negative responses. She deals with these pol itical issues from multiple viewpoints: once one's position is reversed, she seems to be saying, the role of assailant and victim can be inverted , or the other way of perceiving and comprehending a historical fact wil l be altered . Through her work, she shows this relationship between assailant and victim, by emphasising and making viewers conscious of the 'other'. M iwa Yanag i People in Australia may have seen Yanagi's work in the 'Signs of li,fe : Melbourne International Biennial 1 999'. In Japan, professional women operate lifts in big department stores, and act as guides at trade fairs and other public events. Most of them are young women who wear uniforms designed along the l ines of garments worn by members of the British royal family, and they are trained to speak in a particular way, following strict guidelines. Although this profession is h ighly routin ised , it is very popular work among young women . Using a computer, Yanagi synthesises photographs of these women with images of British royal fashion and of the quasi-European scenes, which can be seen all over, Japan. The images she creates are amazingly 'real istic' Japanese landscapes that appear to actually exist, when in fact they are manipulated virtual images which , of course, do not exist in real life. Her work vividly shows the idiosyncrasy of the contemporary Japanese landscape . M iyako lshi uchi lshiuchi's work documents the hands and feet of women, in black and white photographs. Al l of her models were born in 1 947 , the same year that she was born . Viewers can see their lives and histories concentrated upon their hands and feet. Recently lshiuchi has also been documenting the scars on human bod ies. This series of work directs viewers to contemplate d ifficult times in the models' lives. 43