Sneak Preview: Ryoko Suzuki

The opening of Ryoko Suzuki’s “Anikora” exhibition is sure to be a titillating one, as it features 2 meter high scantily clad fantasy women. Even more exciting, this exhibition is the first time anyone will see a new work by Suzuki, produced right here in Shanghai.

In October, Andrew James Art launched a residency program offering free accommodations and a studio in the chic boutique JIA hotel for one month. CreativeHunt met with Ryoko Suzuki and Andrew James to get a sneak preview of Suzuki’s new work, and find out how Shanghai is influencing her work.

The first thing you’ll notice upon entering, is the size of Suzuki's photographs. These highly sexual anime babes look adorable and harmless on your computer monitor right now, but in person, the images are so big they’re intimidating. The size heightens the contrast between real and fantasy. The term "anikora" refers to the typical Japanese male's desire to see his favourite celebrities nude; sometimes this pursuit involves putting a real woman’s face onto a fantasy body.



Suzuki has decided to participate in anikora to draw critical attention to it. To produce each image, Suzuki photographed a common, anime-style figurine, and Photoshopped her face onto it. You'll notice a certain sheen to the plastic doll's arms and legs that betrays its artificiality. Meanwhile, Suzuki's face confronts the viewer with real eyes, direct gaze, and adult features.



When Suzuki participates in the anikora process, she is control of the outcome, and looks confident, but that’s not usually the case. As Andrew James’ press info points out, the Japanese interest in "kawaii" (that mix of cutesy and sexual) is one of the most important values, and pressures, affecting Japanese women today.

"These images are a symbol of men’s desire – and they always want to control that desire," Suzuki explains. "But in this presentation, the power is switched," she giggles, shyly. "It makes them uncomfortable."

While in Shanghai, Ryoko Suzuki has been experimenting with a new way of obscuring and re-presenting images of kawaii girls. Here it is, her latest work, covered in hundreds of glass balls.



At first the balls look like bubbles, the playthings of children. She has thousands of them in different sizes in bags, spread all over her work table in JIA’s artist in residence studio. Also on the table: tubes of silicon and teensy, silicon coats and foot-binding shoes, an extension of her “Childhood” series. Her space is covered with many projects in different media. And she has a vase of lilies. "Sometimes the smell of Shanghai bothers me" she says. "The flowers help."

Suzuki has "been to Shanghai before to visit and travel, but was always too busy, with no time for development." The residency has allowed her "to get much more insight," from walking the streets and observing people. We ask whether Suzuki stores her insights recorded on paper, in a journal perhaps, or with a camera maybe. She is, after all, a photographer.

"I prefer just keeping it all in myself a long, long time," she says, motioning gently over her heart and stomach. There are no short and simple answers for Suzuki, who views her work as a lengthy process. She avoids naming specific plans and details of her observations. "We are always trying so hard to explain. I think artists need to be building inside," from what she sees, hears, and smells. Suzuki also mentions that she hopes to meet her audience, and hear their questions.



Exhibition runs until December 20 at Andrew James Art, 39 Maoming North Road. Tel: 5288 7550. www.andrewjamesart.com