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Japanese Males Surrender

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Japanese Males Surrender
a collaboration with Mayumi Hamanaka

2003-
archival pigment print, paper
dimensions variable in installation, each photograph 43" x 85"
See the Video Documentation


We started with two focal points of the project: the idea of "surrender" in the war zones and the stereotyped masculinity (sexuality) of Japanese males. The investigation of the U.S.-Japan political relationship after WWII suggested to me a dynamic connection between those two points. That is the ambivalent or ambiguous relation of "who forced surrender" and "who were forced to surrender." "Who forced", naturally, took power over "who was forced", but the relation does not end at the simple power relationship. "Who forced" needs to do some tasks as their responsibility, and "who was forced" takes advantage of it. "Surrender" is a contract. "Surrender" is a contract of unstable power relationships at a catastrophic point. That ambiguous power relationship happens between the overwhelming size of those photos and the viewers.

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