Manko-chan in China: Rokudenashiko (Megumi Igarashi) heads to Hong Kong in tribute exhibition
“Gender, Genitor, Genitalia – Rokudenashiko Tribute” is an exhibition planned for Hong Kong as a tribute to the struggle of “vagina artist” Rokudenashiko (Megumi Igarashi).
Megumi Igarashi, who goes by the artist name of Rokudenashiko, calls her art “deko-man” (vagina decoration). She has been arrested for obscenity. Her crime was such projects as making a boat based on a mold of her genitalia. (Remember, this is all happening in Japan, where mythology says the gods created the islands through sex and fertility festivals continue to happen.)
The exhibitors are currently running an IndieGoGo campaign to raise funds for the project. They want $13,525 and have so far got around 20% of their goal, with over a month still to go (it’s a “flexible” campaign so they will still collect even if they don’t make their entire target).
Firstly, we think it is important to let people know what is happening in Japan. Not only with Rokudenshiko, but also those LGBT artists in Japan who have been warned or arrested under the Obscenity Laws in the past three years. People in Hong Kong are aware of freedom of artistic expression and we believe that it is significant to realize this project in Hong Kong, a hub in Asia and also a location that is highly aware of, even threatened by, authoritarian politics.
Secondly, relating to Rokudenashiko’s incident, we will try to examine feminism in art and digital obscenity in this exhibition, within the context of the Hong Kong and Japanese experience. Through the works of art in this exhibition, and information provided about the Rokudenashiko case, we will be rethinking issues around feminism and genitalia in a cultural and political context.
The exhibition is planned for August 29th to September 20th at Woofer Ten in Kowloon.
Participating artists include Makoto Aida, Sputniko!, and of course, Rokudenashiko (Megumi Igarashi).
The organizers are presenting the exhibition as “feminist” — a rare thing in Asian art.
Feminist art is usually a rare category of art in Asia, and not many exhibitions on the theme have taken place in the past. We would like to align the works within a feminist context in Hong Kong and Japan, and consider whether the artists think they are feminists or not. Feminism is not a unified ideology, and several groups have different ideas.
The exhibition includes different concepts of feminism, from different points of view; from “Lipstick Feminism” (Robot, Sputniko!) to the more classical ideal of liberating woman from oppression (Ryoko Suzuki, Lam Hoi Sin, Rokudenashiko).
Gender issues in the digital world are an emerging issue. Some of the works deal with sexual desire and body politics in internet culture (Suzuki, Lam, Chan Mei Tung), which relates to our theme as Rokudenashiko was arrested for distributing her 3D vagina data.
Campaign perks include Makoto Aida tote bag with an “obscene” drawing on it. Nice!
Check out the exhibition crowd-funding campaign for more.
