Beyond ‘Japanese/Women Artists’

Abstract

The artists Nobuho Nagasawa and Chiharu Shiota defy the typical profile of ‘Japanese/women artists’. They were educated in Europe and have both lived in Berlin. They have resided in cosmopolitan cities outside Japan and exhibited their works globally over the last decade. Their travels helped them attain the perspective of the ‘outsider’ and enriched their artistic creation. Their mobility also lent complexity to their identities, which could no longer be pigeon-holed according to ethnic or cultural origin. These artists’ career paths and their growing reception in the global art scene pose important questions about being an artist of Asian origin working outside one's home country. Through in-depth analysis this article demonstrates how the work of these two artists transcends the conventionally held presumptions regarding ‘Japanese/women artists’. It also considers how they both internalize cultural displacement within their work, while catalysing artistic dialogue beyond national and cultural borders.