A Different Kind of Asian Female Image
by Latoya Peterson
Yuko Shimizu is a bad motherfucker.
I wish I was articulate enough to express what I feel when I look ar her art, but the phrase above was all I could manage to do.
“Everyone who is honest is interesting” are the words on her landing page and visual honesty is what informs each and every image she renders in a multitude of mediums.
For instance, take the example of Panda Girl:
Whoa. Billed as the first Asian-American superheroine (sorry Jubilee, looks like you were disqualifed due to excessive coloring errors!) Panda Girl looks like she can bring a serious can of whoop-ass to the superhero party. I wish someone would try to stuff her in a refrigerator!
Shimizu covers a lot of ground, and her online portfolio displays illustrations on sports subjects to business to portraits of music icons to children’s book themes.
Yuko Shimizu also has the amazing ability to realistically render people of color in all their forms. She nails varying tones and characteristics in children in this piece for the New York Times:
And she manages to realistically portray the complexity and difference in human hair texture, build, and complexion for her illustration featured in the New Yorker:
While I am having great fun exploring her work, I do have a confession to make. It’s been a few days and I’m still trying to figure out what this image is saying about sex:
Umm…any ideas?
[All images are property of Yuko Shimizu, unless otherwise indicated on her site.]
[via Tokyomango]
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
macintyre wrote:
Panda Girl is the raddest!
Posted 09 Apr 2008 at 11:43 am ¶
tasha wrote:
is this the same artist that did the piece with the geisha getting her braids done?
Posted 09 Apr 2008 at 12:03 pm ¶
The Cruel Secretary wrote:
@ Latoya–Daaaayyyyyuuuumm! Yuko is incredible. Get it, Yuko! And that last image: it be read as sex as a form of self-comfort?
Posted 09 Apr 2008 at 12:45 pm ¶
Cheryl Lynn wrote:
Oh, that is lovely.
Posted 09 Apr 2008 at 1:08 pm ¶
Fatemeh wrote:
This is some really great work. I love the picture of everybody getting their sexy time on.
Posted 09 Apr 2008 at 1:20 pm ¶
Arturo wrote:
Panda Girl is epic! I’d read her book for sure.
Posted 09 Apr 2008 at 1:20 pm ¶
miss girl wrote:
The last image: half of her face is covered - maybe it’s a reference to the stereotype that Asian women are shy and demure when it comes to femininity and sexuality. However, she’s knitting her cooch - knitting takes skill and control. Maybe it a reference that underneath it all, she’s strong and self-assuring.
Posted 09 Apr 2008 at 1:24 pm ¶
miss girl wrote:
Oooh ooh - at the same time though, it’s her cooch that’s knitting the sweater covering half of her face - maybe that refers to how she hides her self in sexuality? How she *doesn’t* feel comfortable exposing her sexuality - or maybe she’s consumed by it? Blabbityblah!
Posted 09 Apr 2008 at 1:33 pm ¶
The Cruel Secretary wrote:
@ miss girl–I like you interpretation better.
Posted 09 Apr 2008 at 1:37 pm ¶
The Cruel Secretary wrote:
@ miss girl–your first one, though the 2nd is pretty cool, too.
Posted 09 Apr 2008 at 1:39 pm ¶
islandgirl550 wrote:
This artist is amazing. I want to check out more of her work.
Off topic: Did anyone get to see the Murkami exhibit at the Brookly Museum this past weekend? It was great!
Posted 09 Apr 2008 at 3:11 pm ¶
Erin wrote:
omg! as a knitter, i LOVE that image! also, thanks for introducing me to a new artist…i love her work.
Posted 09 Apr 2008 at 3:24 pm ¶
NancyP wrote:
Thanks for bringing her to our attention!
Posted 09 Apr 2008 at 4:13 pm ¶
Angel H. wrote:
OMG!!!!! Awesome! Awesome! Freakin’ Awesome!!
Thanks so much for introducing me to her work!
Posted 09 Apr 2008 at 4:52 pm ¶
julespeony wrote:
I agree that this artist has skills, but is this really a different image of AA women? The dichotomy of passiveness and submissiveness with sex appeal? The sexified fighting outfit, and with the last drawing–her mouth is covered (silenced), sexuality is exposed for others’ to consume…though she is the one who has control over the knitting needles. I definitely like the style but think deeper analysis is necessary.
Posted 09 Apr 2008 at 5:00 pm ¶
The Cruel Secretary wrote:
@ julespeony–is that kind of what miss girl said in her second post? I’m going with a synthesis of yours and hers…
Posted 09 Apr 2008 at 5:49 pm ¶
Bekka wrote:
I saw the image as more universal for women, in terms of the huge paradox in our culture where it’s taboo to speak your own sexuality, to be willfully sexy without being a slut, but we’re simultaneously bombarded with women baring everything, being expected to be constantly sexually available. The dichotomy of closing the mouth but leaving the body exposed, because the mouth OWNS sexuality as the woman’s, but the body can be consumed by the viewer. And the self knitting in terms of feeling coerced into this cycle of our own oppression.
Posted 10 Apr 2008 at 7:14 am ¶
macintyre wrote:
The knitting picture — if it’s susceptible to a Western interpretation, she’s knitting a “hair shirt” out of her sexuality. A hair shirt was an uncomfortable garment made from hair worn by ascetics and monks in order to do penance and to keep themselves bodily pure by focusing on discomfort rather than pleasure. So the illustration expresses a fundamental ambivalence and hostility towards her own sexuality.
Posted 10 Apr 2008 at 9:25 am ¶
julespeony wrote:
It might be easy to think of these images as universal statements of sexuality, but they need to be read as much more than that. The more I’ve thought about it, the less I think they are radical messages about Asian American women. For instance, the first image of the traditional Japanese womyn with headphones–is that supposed to be a meeting of extremes? Of East meets West? Of tradition versus modernity? I don’t think we can think it simple, extremist terms. Why not draw an Asian woman without the markers of ancient culture? As for the other pictures, I think they reinforce stereotypes about Asian women. Martial artist? check. Exposed sexuality? check Exoticized appearance? (green eyes? why not black or brown, as with most Asian womyn?) check Voiceless? check Lastly, why does her super hero shirt have the symbol for double happiness? what is that supposed to represent? It becomes non-sensical and loses its appeal as a substantive contribution to progressive art…interested in hearing what others have to say.
Posted 10 Apr 2008 at 10:22 pm ¶
Torontonian wrote:
I agree with julespeony. How is this a “different kind” of Asian female image?
I like the DJ picture, the babies, and the sexing people, but I’m not really feeling the pantyshot “Panda Girl” or the other sexualized Asian female body with the knitting. The DJ picture still looks geisha-ish, but I like it aesthetically.
Are those three Asian female pictures exactly the kind of pictures (SWPL) white people would drool over? Yes.
Also, Panda Girl looks like a Japanese and Chinese cultural fusion, which is how non-Asian people often view “Asian culture”.
Posted 10 Apr 2008 at 11:37 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
Julespony and Torontonian -
They are different from the images I’ve seen, in style and in context. I suggest you go and check out the rest of her site to get a feel for her overall style - I viewed about 75 images and picked 4.
Posted 10 Apr 2008 at 11:40 pm ¶
Torontonian wrote:
I checked out her site… she’s a good artist and creative, but I still don’t see how it’s a different kind of Asian female image.
For the same type of orientalist style but more subversive (IMHO), there’s Urban Envy, which I found on Feministing.
- Skateboards
- Paintings, especially Madama Butterfly 2006:
Posted 11 Apr 2008 at 12:27 am ¶