Kay Curry
Northwest Asia Weekly
Erin Shigaki (Photo by Giles Clement)
Art is activism. Whether you are creating in your own home, or for a work to be put in a museum, or a large-scale public project, the act of creation will trigger dialogue and change. As part of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center in Washington, the Northwest Nikkei Museum (NNM) hosted Erin Shigaki, a local fourth-generation Japanese-American artist activist, on July 16 as part of its speaker series. Together with former NMM curator Tracey Fugami and the public, Shigaki participated in an online conversation about art, which would make a difference.
“Art creation… is like a radical move. It expresses someone’s voice and ideas, so it’s very powerful,” Fugami started, and then he invited Shigaki to discuss the importance of art, especially in recent months. The pandemic and revival of racist violence. The event discussed public art and its impact on the community, as well as the differences in the experience of artists and audiences in public murals or installations compared to artworks displayed in museums or galleries.
“Participating in images in public will remind us that art is about people,” Fugami said.
Since she recently returned to her hometown of Seattle from the “rat race” in New York, Shigaki has been involved in multiple public art projects, as she described. She attributed this return home to her charge as an artist. She said that returning to Seattle and the support community here helped her achieve her artistic mission, which was to produce work related to the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II, as well as other ethnic and cultural themes. After returning to China, her work was exhibited through e-commerce and NNM, and was exhibited outdoors in the Central District and the International District.
Shigaki erected a “Never Again Is Now” mural on the side of the Densho building (Photo: Eugene Tagawa)
She is currently making public murals in the University District, which will draw attention to the 449 Nikkei students of the University of Washington who were forced to leave due to administrative orders and go to the detention camp. In this work, she used a photo from an Asian American student gathering in the fall of 1941.
“We believe that many of the 449 Nikkei students are in the photos,” Shigaki explained. “It’s great to see it’s 15 feet wide, where you can actually see people’s faces, see our community arrive at this place, where many children go to college, families are prosperous — and then things have changed dramatically. “
Part of the discussion that night revolved around how the artist chose the images in his work. Fugami raised the danger of tokenization and the danger of losing personal experience in group photos. Shigaki agrees that this is a delicate issue and shows her sensitivity through her careful choice.
“AAPI has a special experience of it through the long-term display of these special methods-the yellow peril-which is very interesting. When I choose historical images around imprisonment, I try to make sure that they are dignified…I don’t People with smiles are used purely out of nervous energy and fear, or because the newspapers take people’s pictures as they are being transported away. I find these a little disturbing.”
When Shigaki encountered an exciting moment in her work or her history, her voice changed. She showed the attendees two photos she used to “ground” herself when creating art.
One is her grandmother, Yasuko Shigaki, a former teacher at King Street Japanese Language School, and she was taken to one of the camps where Shigaki’s father was born.
The other was Shigaki himself on the front porch of “Grandma Yasu”, and a cousin and a family friend also attended the speech.
Fugami, now the HR Director of Consulting and Referral Services in Asia, praised Shigaki for capturing shared experiences.
“Historical trauma… I feel from my parents’ detention, insecurity, self-evident, shame… some of it is heartbreaking, but it also makes sense. We hold onto these places tightly… because we think Everything will be taken away.
This still continues on us…[and] When we make works, those precious things become beauty. “
Shigaki talked about one of her most influential works in the Seattle area to date. This is her mural “Never Again Is Now”, which depicts two Japanese-American children taken to a detention camp. It was displayed on the side of the Densho building, and then Bellevue College requested a mural on the 2020 anniversary. In a well-known incident, a university vice president whitewashed part of the art label, which mentioned the famous local businessman Miller Freeman and his support for the anti-Japanese movement in the early 1900s.
“I was dizzy for a while,” Shigaki recalled. “A piece of history that has been erased and then erased in a piece of art I created.”
In response, the deputy dean of the college was put on holiday and the college issued an apology. The community also hosted a rehabilitation event in which a diverse group came together to recognize what happened in Bellevue during World War II and 2020.
“I am very grateful to those people who supported me in a very painful experience…Hundreds of people came, and I think this really represents what our family and ancestors wanted to see when the executive order was issued— —We want to see other people come forward for us.”
The Weekly asked Shigaki to what extent her identity was integrated into her art and activism. She admits that it is difficult to separate the three.
“In bad days, I sometimes say to my partner Clark,’I wish I could do something small…’ Because work can be emotionally heavy, and it is also censored and whitewashed. But soon, this feeling passed, and I realized that my purpose was to tell the story of Japanese Americans, to commemorate my ancestors and to serve the liberation of all.”
Kai can be info@nwasianweekly.com.
