The White Doves, 2005, from 'Fairy Tales'
Windswept Woman V, 2009
Windswept Woman II, 2009
Snow White, 2004, from 'Fairy Tales'
Miwa Yanagi has much to say about the Japan's society of women today, and derives much of her inspiration from the dichotomy between youth and maturity intermingled within that specific world. Yanagi's creations are reactions to the social restraint of Japanese culture.
"Japanese women today conceive themselves as someone who are lovable. They think they have to be lovable and liked by everyone around them. Especially young women think that they don't deserve to live if they are not like that. As a result, they don't talk openly about their wishes or strange desires even though they had some ideas about who they wanted to be when they were children. In order for them to recall their childhood dreams, they need to be liberated from their youthfulness."
"It's maybe easy to go your own way in America, but in Japan self-centered individualism is not acceptable without you being totally on top of others. Otherwise, you cannot keep on living. If you brake off from your family and decide to never see them again, you can be individualistic. But, if you like to keep a certain distance from your family yet maintain the balance, there are a lot of concerns."
Reflecting on her work entitled, 'Fairy Tales', Miwa Yanagi explains her use of youth and monsters:
"Monsters are anomalies on the edge of society, and that exemption from social constraints in a way mirrors the freedom of children and the elderly."
Quotes from Yanagi's Interview with the "Journal of Contemporary Art"
The Grandmothers
(2000-2009)
SHIZUKA
"Do I or don't I stop these hands at this very moment."
In her nine year project, 'My Grandmothers," Yanagi used young women ranging between the ages of 18 and 40 to express how they envisioned themselves forty, fifty, or sixty years from the present. What she avoided were expressions of being close to family and a loving home life in order to highlight the possibilities outside of traditional hopes and dreams and centering on her preference for more independent women.
"I think if you are too young, like junior high school students, you don't have any realistic view of life. They haven't lived long enough yet. Many in their twenties are the same. So, when they apply via e-mail, I turn down their applications and advise them to take a first step in the real life before dreaming about being an extraordinary grandmother."
"I really respect elderly women or men in their 80's and 90's who care for others, and have opinions about the society and beyond until they die. There are only few people who can do that."
MISAKO
"How many more nights are yet to pass for this desolation to cease"
YUKA
"I told one of my grandkids over the phone that I've been zapped off into some other universe."
MIWA
"Whenever I go out to meet one of my new offspring, we all end up going on a journey together."
"It is strange to me to emphasize the importance of the biological connection to your children, which can lead to cloning. The emphasis is on physically feeling the pain of giving a birth to a child who carries your DNA. The idea of surrogate mother also raises a question. Having someone else carry your ovum in order for you to have a biological child."
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