Women In-Between in Asia: Polyphony by Women
Kokatsu Reiko

Introduction
This will be the ﬁrst attempt in Japan to hold such an extensive
traveling exhibition, gathering together the works of exclusively Asianborn women artists, who either keep on working in Asia or have changed
their base of activity to the other regions of the world. Why does it
have to be Asia? Why only women? To answer these questions which
certainly touch the basic composition of the exhibition, I must startby giving some accounts of how this exhibition came to be conceived.
One of the accounts can be made from my experience in the Tochigi
Prefectural Museum of Fine Art, compiling the activities of womenartists historically. The ﬁrst of such exhibitions that I have planned andheld was the(1997), which tooka general view on female images and artworks of women artists up to
the contemporary art in western and Japanese art history. Then, themodern art of Japan in the period before World War II to the 1970s, on
which I could not have extended my survey in the ﬁrst exhibition, wascompiled in two exhibitions, the(2001) 1 and the(2004).
Then, there came in another element, the Fukuoka Asian Art
Museum. Since its opening in the year 1999, as a unique museum inJapan, which sets its keynote to introduce Asian art, it has organizedmany special exhibitions and 4 exhibitions of. With the exhibits that they have acquired in their exhibitions
as its core, a rich Asian art collection has been built up. Although thenumber of male artistsʼ works hold unquestionable lead in its collection,
Rawanchaikul Toshiko, a curator of the museum, reveals that extremely
multifarious and quality works of women artists are included.2

Consequently, even though the area of my survey, till then, hadbeen limited to the East Asia,3 my immense interests in the art of more

extensive area developed. Such enthusiasm of mine and the interest of
Ms. Rawanchaikul in women art met together and converged to theplanning of an Asian women artistsʼ art exhibition. For its realization,
the long-cherished zeal for the Asian Women art exhibition of Mr.
Yasunaga Koichi, the ex-director (present advisor) of the Fukuoka AsianArt Museum was a great support as well. Joining in based on thesefactors is Tomiyama Megumi,4 a curator of the Okinawa Prefectural

Museum & Art Museum, who is setting as her life work the survey
and record of women art in Okinawa from the modern time onward,
and Hara Maiko, a curator of the Mie Prefectural Art Museum, who
originally did research on the representation of Korea during thecolonial period in Japanese governmental art exhibitions ()

and extended her research towards contemporary art in Indonesia andMalaysia. Thus, the 4 participating museums came to be determined.
Moreover, the survey for this exhibition gave an opportunity to expand
awareness towards womenʼs art to Nakao Tomomichi, a curator of
the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, who specializes in the study of themodern and contemporary art of the Philippines.5

In this text, I will reexamine, to the extent of my personal views,
the women art exhibitions which have been held in the Asian region
and the world prior to this exhibition. And, taking into account theveriﬁcation, I will aim at bringing the signiﬁcance and originality of thisexhibition up to the surface.

1. Groups and Exhibitions of Asian Women Artists (from the1980s)
In the 1970s, the zealous emanation of second-wave feminism,
which had evolved mainly in North America, well reached and spreadamongst women in new Asian nations, achieved by their independence
after World War II. Even in those countries which enjoyeddemocratization brought by the independence, the male-dominant
patriarchal social structure was ﬁrmly maintained so that, for women,
as individual people, the freedom of working in the society and of selfexpression were still considerably restricted.
To reform this social system, women tried to embolden themselvesby forming groups with a sense of solidarity. Women artists acted alike.
From the 1980s, as if a dam had broken, pioneering women artist
groups were formed, women artist exhibitions were held and many
more burst out in many Asian counties.6 Without going into detail,let me cite some instances. In Korea, Kim In-Sung, Yun Suknam(p. 74) and other women artists organized the October Group, andstarted their activity from 1982. In 1987, they formed the Yomiyon
Women Artistsʼ Group, as a branch group of the Minzok (Peopleʼs) Art

Association, which belonged to the
Art Movement, and put
up an annual art show,, which continued to be held
up to the 10th Exhibition. While, in India, Nalini Malani (p. 104),

together with Alpita Singh (p. 60) and other women artists planned the
4 women travelling exhibition named, which7
was set on tour for 3 years from 1987. In the Philippines, women artists
like Brenda Fajardo (p. 90) and Imelda Cajipe Endaya (p. 106) formed

the women artists group named Kasibulan and were striving to raise
womenʼs awareness.8 All of these activities were carried out by artists.

These movements by women artists were taking root in nations
and regions in the 80s, but, in the latter half of the 90s, they started
making an international development. On one hand, artists get invited
to some authoritative international exhibitions held in Europe, like the(1895-) and the(1955-) in Kassel, and｜Essay 1 Kokatsu Reiko ｜17there appear some Asian artists who gain a world-wide reputation in
the big wave of globalisation. Amongst them, some women artists were

included, despite a smaller number compared to the male artists. There

Shimada Yoshiko participated.

and continue their art activities, such as Shirin Neshat from Iran, who

I saw with my own eyes, for the ﬁrst time, the aggressive artworks

appear also some artists who move their bases to western countries
is not included in this exhibition, and Kimsooja (p. 126) from Korea

and Shiota Chiharu (p. 122) from Japan. On the other hand, we startseeing increasing numbers of nations or cities in Asia which organize
international exhibitions on their own to set for their cultural strategy,
as the result of their economic development. The(1973-) in Australia, theand are followed by the(New Delhi, 1968-2005), the(1981-) are pathﬁnders in this period,

the second such exhibition in Australia, theand, a little later on, the

the
the

(Brisbane, 1993-) marking(2000-) in Korea, the(1996-) and the(1995-)(2002-) in China, and(1998-). While, in Japan, we can cite the(Fukuoka Art Museum, 1980-1994) as a forerunner of this sort,(1999-) as a successor, and the(2001-), bothof which made a delayed appearance in the Asian art scene, yet the sizeof which are remarkable, and the(2010-) as the latest(2000-) and thecomer to the scene. In recent years, the(2006-) is
noticeable, making a considerable leap as a hub of Asian contemporary
art.
There are quite interesting subjects like ﬁguring out how Asian
women artists came to gain their positions or how they went on
metamorphosing after having been consumed on the glamorous stagesof international exhibitions which were directly connected to theirreputation in the international art market. However, as it surpasses
the limit of this essay, it has to be left for the themes of future survey
and research. What Iʼd rather describe now is the exhibitions whichwere organized by women artists themselves with their grass-roots typenetwork in various places in Asia. In 1997, Nitaya Ueareeworakul
and Varsha Nair initiated thein Thailand.9 Beside theexhibition, other activities like workshops and artists-in-residence
programs were prepared, aiming at international exchange amongst
women artists and art critics, between themselves and, further, theexchange between art and local communities. It was repeated until
the year 2008. The
exhibition, held in the Lasalle-SIA
College of Arts in Singapore in 2000, was a precursor of Pan Asian
women artists exhibition inclusive of Australia. Its catalogue and thecollection of essays published at the same time were replete.10 FromJapan, Inoue Hiroko (p. 120) and Ito Tari (p. 118) were included in theparticipating women artists, bringing the total number of 22. Although
the size of the exhibition was small and only a limited number of artists
were invited, it can be considered to be a similar type of exhibition,
having a purpose and a viewpoint common to our exhibition. It is quite
regrettable that I could not visit it.
In 1994 in Korea, Kim Hong-hee,11 an art critic, planned and held
theexhibition, participation by Yun Suknam 12 and many other womenartists. In 1999, art critics Kim Hong-hee, Kim Sun-hee and Beck Jeesook and artists Yun Suknam and Park Young-sook got together andformed the Feminist Artistsʼ Network (FAN), and held theexhibition (2002), entitled18

its exhibited artists to East Asian countries like the Philippines,
Thailand, China, Taiwan and Japan.13 From Japan, Ito Tari and｜Essay 1 Kokatsu Reiko ｜exhibition. This Group organized a second, expanding

Attending the vernisage of theexhibition,

executed with high social awareness of Asian women artists, and had
a great opportunity to meet closely those artists as well. It may safely
be said that my encounter with that very exhibition could have been
the ﬁrst opportunity to get the idea of planning our exhibition. And
to a person like me whose occasions to survey systematically the Asian
Art have been quite scarce, another opportunity came by chance. I
happened to be connected to another women artists group exhibition,, which was planned and realized by Flaudette May
Datuin in 2007.14 It can be considered to be a hand-made exhibition.
As they could not get enough subsidy for it, it happened only by eachartistʼs eﬀort to obtain the necessary funds. Professor Datuin andstudents of the University of the Philippines, working side by side, with
continual and unfatigable dialogues with the artists who had come to
Manila at their own expenses, managed somehow to attain the opening
day after their operation (of trial and error, conﬂict and negotiation) with

their unique inimitable lento tempo. Having had the opportunity towitness their operation was quite a rare but precious experience formyself who is used to the eﬃcient operations of Japanese Museums.15

Those activities of women artists, art historians and art critics of eachcountry in Asia should be described more precisely and appropriately,with further research, but, it would again exceed the scope of this essay.
I just leave the task to the essays by the specialists of each country or
each region in this catalogue.
2. International Women Artists Exhibitions in the World (since 2000)
Now, let us turn our eyes towards the world again and take a generalview on women artists exhibitions in western countries which wereconsidered to be developed countries in the sense of feminism. In the
United States, the womenʼs liberation movement from the 1970s has
been a driving force to lodge a protest against and to seek the rectiﬁcationof the antiquated ideology which caused discrimination against womenor misogyny in society and was preventing women from gaining groundin various domains in public aﬀairs. Yet even for the United States, the1980s - 90s was said to be the era of backlash against feminism. In theﬁeld of art as well, still as low as ever was the ratio of women artists who
were well evaluated, or whose works were acquired by museums, or
exhibited at permanent exhibitions. According to Yoshimoto Midori,16a scholar living in the United States, in order to break down such asituation then, “The Feminist Art Project” (TFAP)17 was inaugurated

in 2006 by some art historians, curators and artists. And in 2007, twolarge-scale international women art exhibitions were held in the eastand the west of the North American Continent, in conjunction with
TFAP. They are theexhibition(which went on a tour from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
to Washington, to New York, and to Vancouver in Canada)18 and the, new directions in contemporary art (traveled from the Brooklyn

Museum to Wellesley College).19 They became widely acknowledged

as an upsurge of feminism art in the US, commemorating the 35th
anniversary of the earlier feminist movements and group formations in
the 1970s. Although I, myself, did not have a pleasure of visiting eitherof them, let me venture to outline the content of each exhibition and topoint out several issues, referring to the above-cited essay of Yoshimoto

and the exhibition catalogues.

contemporary critical viewpoint. When it comes to the aforesaid large

pieces of artwork which were considered to be the core of feminist

artists, even on the side of viewers a tough spirit and body is required

First of all,

was a retrospective exhibition covering 430

art mainly on the American art stage. They had expanded their view

towards European artists, yet the majority of the 120 chosen artists
were white, western women artists with only a few Asian artists who
were active in the American art scene.20 On the other hand, thewas an exhibition of the latest work created in and after 1990
by some 90 young artists (who were born in and after 1960) of about 50

countries in East Europe, Asia and Africa. Its remarkable achievement
was that it opened up its border to the artists of non-Western areas,
who were lacking in. Despite its positive element, in the actual
venue, the exhibition was composed with, the permanent
exhibit of Judy Chicago in the Brooklyn Museum, laid in the centre
room, and the other exhibits being laid out starting from the rooms
fringed around the centre room in three directions. This arrangement
was said to have caused a cynical outcome, renewing the impression of“the artists from the marginal areas of the world to have been literallychased out to the periphery of the venue.” 21 Another thing blemishing

this exhibition was that the artists were chosen with a certain age limit,
so that the feminist artists who are older but still creative with fullenergy were left out.22

and global-scaled exhibitions with several hundreds exhibits by over 100
to properly ﬁgure out their curatorial intentions and eventually tocomprehend them well. The

exhibition, on the contrary,consisted of a rather small number of artistsʼ works, and 4 womenrelated keywords, “Womad (Women Nomad),” “Herstory,” “Sister
Act” and “Femme Fatale,” were given to help the comprehension ofworks. The viewers could easily feel how contemporary Korean womenartists were vividly tackling with, as their own themes, problems likegender, society, history, politics, womenʼs bodies and illusions plated
on women, and how they are getting versatile results in their activities.
Furthermore, the viewers could also get encouragement from theirpower.
3. Women Artists Exhibitions in Japan: Towards the Women In-Between:
Asian Women Artists 1984-2012
Now, if we turn to women and art exhibitions in Japan, what
could be the situation? As a pioneer, the(Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of

Photography, 1991) was organized by Kasahara Michiko, a curator of

the Museum. It was well followed by several exhibitions with gender
points of view in the middle of the 1990s, yet concurrently, the bashings
on the introduction of gender viewpoint were exchanged 29 including

Both exhibitions were signiﬁcant in the sense that they encouraged
feminist art which had long been depressed and that each one, in
its own way, had expanded the historical view and the international
outlook in the US. Nevertheless, the argument that Yoshimoto Midori
indicates 23 says much to the point that the feminism is still a privilege

in domains like museums and art history research. Later on in 2006
as well, the gender backlash raged in some lecture meetings in public
institutions.30 Thus, in Japanese society, there rises intermittently ain their collection, with a plan of one year. However, its popularity
made it prolonged till February of 2011.24 I could visit and witness

17th ‒ 28th Jan. 2001) 31 and theof white middle-class women, and that, in its practice, it always ends up
with the problems of racial or class diﬀerentials.
In May 2009 at the Pompidou Centre in Paris as well, thepermanent exhibition entitledstarted showing
only women artistsʼ artworks (architecture, art, design and photograph)this unique exhibition, in which some 500 exhibits by over 200 womenartists were ﬁlling up the entire 4th ﬂoor and a part of the 5th ﬂoor of
the Pompidou Centre. As the exhibits were limited to possessions of the
Pompidou, there were some shortcomings like the scarcity of avantgarde artists of the pre-war time, the absence of important womenartists who were active elsewhere other than in Europe, and especiallythe poor collection of women artists of Asian origin.25 Nevertheless, as it

was said that some exhibited pieces of artworks like those of Orlan and
Rachel Whiteread had been acquired on the occasion,26 if the exhibition
has accelerated the purchase of women artistsʼ works, it was goodenough. Before everything else, the fact that the permanent exhibitionof Pompidou Centre was occupied by women artists for almost 2 years
was a stirring feat, especially for France,27 which had been falling behindin the ﬁelds of Feminism and Gender criticism in contemporary art.
Finally, even though it was not of international scale, I would also
like to refer to theexhibition,28 which was held locally at the

Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art in Korea in 2008. To commemorate
the 60th anniversary of the death of Na Hye-sok (1896-1948), the ﬁrst

woman oil painter who hails from Suwon City in Gyeonggi-do, theexhibition was organized with 26 Korean women artists and one maleartist, setting, at its core, works of Yun Suknam, a pioneer of feminism
art in Korea. It was an intellectually stimulating exhibition in which
the women and art in Korea was inspected historically and from therefusal reaction of people who have a misunderstanding or a prejudiceagainst the idea of gender. Therefore, gender understanding hardly
penetrates into Japanese society.
Under that situation of society, it would be worthwhile mentioning
two exhibitions which were planned by the artists themselves. They
are theexhibition (at the Hillside Forum,

exhibition (at A.R.T., 26th June ‒ 17th July in 2004).32 The former,

organized by the WAN (Womenʼs Art Network) Executive Committee,
was enriched with activities like symposia, performances and artisttalks by participating artists including 6 women artists from Asia. The
exhibits consisted of works by 39 groups of artists from Japan and Asia.
The latter was an artist-initiated exhibition, organized by F.A.A.B./
Exhibition Committee, participated by Japanese andKorean women artists, with exhibits and performances by 7 artists(Guest Curator: Kim Sunhee). Having had constraints in venues andfunds, neither could not be considered to have achieved a satisfactoryeﬀect as exhibitions. Yet, they could invite Asian artists to Japan, andas a consequence, women of Japan and other Asian regions could
meet face-to face, get directly connected and have dialogues. Those 2
exhibitions are considered to be extremely signiﬁcant.
As we can see, the consciousness of art and gender or the exchangeof women artists in the Asian region were led by the artists themselvesin the 2000s, with some exceptions like the exhibitions by curators suchas Kasahara Michiko.33 In and after 2010, Asian contemporary womenʼs

art exhibitions started being planned even in public museums. Some
examples are theexhibition(at Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito, 12th Feb. ‒ 8th May in 2011,

discontinued after 11th Mar.) which was discontinued due to the Great

East Japan Earthquake, theexhibition (at the 21st Century｜

Essay 1 Kokatsu Reiko ｜19

Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 30th July ‒ 6th Nov. 2011) andthe

exhibition (at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary

Art, 24th Mar. ‒ 13th May 2012), which was with only 2 women artists

amongst 7 Asian artists.

Unfortunately, I could not see theexhibition.
Takahashi Mizuki, a curator of the exhibition, writes in her essay inthe catalogue that her historical inspection, focusing on the issue of“women” in art, failed to ﬁnd a common form to all the works of thecontemporary women artists in the exhibition, and concluded that, after
all, those exhibits reveal “the impossiblility of appraising the essenceof womenʼs artworks.” 34 And in the
exhibition, Kurosawa

Hiromi, a curator, recognizes that the women artists consider that “arigidly established identity, as well as identities rooted in both traditions
and authority, restrict freedom,” and conﬁrms that “women artistsʼ free
thinking and brave acts of crossing borders should be encouraged,” asthey have had enough restrictions historically.35

After all, they were exhibitions to show that women artists wereat last expressing themselves freely and in a diversiﬁed manner, as aresult of the dissolution of the époque and the environment where
women had been forced into a gender role (or perhaps, as women of
ability have surmounted the constraints).36 Nevertheless, can we be soeasily convinced? We presume that the women artists who can enjoy
such freedom should be quite limited number even in the whole world.
Hereupon, I remember the bitter realization of “running continually
into the problems of racial and class diﬀerentials” that Yoshimoto
Miodori experienced in taking part closely in 2 large-scale womenartist exhibitions in the US, which is often considered to be a feminismdeveloped country. When we turn to the Asian region, the gender
problem gets tangled naturally with not only restrictions of races orclasses but also various constraints like disparity in wealth or disputes
between diﬀerent religions or ethnic groups. It cannot be asserted to
be a past matter that the generations of our mothers or grandmothers
have tackled.37

The
exhibitionis the ﬁrst extensive exhibition in Japan, planned and held with thespirit of scooping up as widely as possible the activities of the Asian
women who live in those diverse environments. The composition of
the exhibition is not done according to nations nor regions but basedon 5 concepts concerning women, “1. Womenʼs Bodies: Sites of
Reproduction/Multiplication, Seduction and Violence,” “2. Womenand Societies: (1) The Roles of Women and Men, and the Bonds
Between Women, (2) The Diaspora and the Marginalized People,”“3. Women and Histories: War, Violence, Death and Memory,” “4.
Women's Techniques and Materials: The Periphery of ʻArt,ʼ” “5. The
Lives of Women: Departing On Her Own.” As for the contents of each
Chapter, the commentaries on Chapters or on artists and exhibits canbe referred to. Nevertheless, it is needless to say that these keywords
cannot totally categorize and sort out the works of Asian women artists,
and it is certainly not our intention.
Let us take, for instance, the paintings by Jung Jungyeob (p. 43)

of Korea, in which she painted every grain of the red beans which
ﬁlled up the whole surface of her canvas. We included her works in
Chapter 1 “Womenʼs Bodies” from its image of “Reproduction/
Multiplication” on the overwhelming quantity of beans, whereas Jung
Jungyeob, from her 20s, has been active as a feminism activist, and is
still trying to abolish the ﬁxed gender role, being extremely conscious

20｜

Essay 1 Kokatsu Reiko ｜about the concept of Chapter 2 “Women and Societies: (1) The Rolesof Women and Men.” And as for Kimsoojaʼs works (p. 126) with clothas its media, she symbolically implies the women related to the world
through the action of sewing with needle and thread. It was included to

Chapter 4 “Women's Techniques and Materials” yet she is profoundly

concerned about the concept of Chapter 2 “Women and Societies:(2) The Diaspora and the Marginalized People.” Thus, these women
living in Asia, through their art, express the themes that they are ﬁxed
into in their real lives, and, by doing so, they are creating awareness of
injustice, absurdity and inequality of the world to as many people aspossible. Instead of being driven to despair for all that, they are trying
to throw a ray of hope for a positive future by awakening imagination
towards the pain of people in a weaker situation.
“Women In-Between” designates a sort of women who carry out
their role to mediate in such areas of confrontation as races, borders,religions or genders, without anchoring fast in a certain ﬁxed value
or attitude, standing not in the centre but interstices as in-between
existences because of the given condition of women as a minority. From
the works of 50 women artists 38 assembled from 16 Asian countries andregions for this exhibition, what sort of voices will we be able to hear?
Will they be clamours or murmurs, pathetic cries or cozy paciﬁcations?
What can be heard, then again, might be left to the viewers. Asian
women do not utter in the least only stealthy voices, nor do they keep
silence. As Ikeuchi Yasuko writes in her critique of
by Jane Jin Kaisen (p. 78), their voices can bewell expressed with “a chorus of voices, washing over one anotherand impossible to separate individually.” 39 Our earnest wish in thisexhibition is that their various voices are heard by as many people aspossible. Undoubtedly, their voices would be heard as a multifarious
and eloquent call to beckon imaginations and renewed arguments,
without recurring to the essentials of “femininity.” 40 The participating

Japanese artists must be also uttering in chorus with Asian womenʼsmulti-layered voices to make their polyphony even more profound.41
Chief Curator, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts
(translated by Takahashi Mihoko)As for the result of investigation and research of the exhibition, I made oral reports in Korea(Symposium “Women in Art Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea & Japan,” May 2002,
Ewha Womans University Museum) and in New York (“Critical Horizons: A Symposium ofJapanese Art in Memory of Chino Kaori,” March 2003, Colombia Univ., Institute of Fine Arts,
NYU), and the written report was published.
2
Oral report made by Rawanchaikul Toshiko on “Asian Women Artist in the Collection of
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum” at the International Symposium “Current Situation of GenderStudies and Art ‒ Rethinking ʻGlobalism,ʼ” organized by KAKEN “Study on Women Artists inthe 20th Century and Their Visual Representations ‒ Memories of War and Diaspora in Asia”(Basic Study B), supported by Image & Gender Kenkyukai (Study Group), 14th Dec. 2008,
Musashi University. According to this report, FAAM possesses 2,345 works (as of 2008) from
21 nations and regions, of which 252 works are by some 85 women artists, while 1,371 works
are by 530 male artists. The following text to be referred to: Rawanchaikul Toshiko “Asia of
women artists ‒ focusing on works from the 1970s to the 1980s,” Report of KAKEN (Grantsin-Aid for Scientific Research), published in 2011, by Institute of Japanese Studies, Graduate
School of Letters, Osaka University (Kitahara Megumi), pp.99-108.
3
Since the first visit to Korea in 2002, introduced by Ms. Kim Hyeshin, I have visited
Korea almost every year to attend art exhibitions and symposia. Beside the researches on thePhilippines in 2008, I also extensively set for the researches of China (2009), Taiwan (2010),
supported by a program of the KAKEN with Ms. Kitahara Megumi as the representative.
Then, I went on to Vietnam (2012) survey as well, for the preparation of this exhibition.
4
Tomiyama Megumi, “In-between Subject and Object ‒ Okinawa Women Art Study (1),”, Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum, 2012, pp.
41-56. Curator Tomiyama organized the following 2 symposia, setting women art in Okinawa
as the main theme. “A view on women art from Okinawa,” 9th Oct. 2010, and “A view on
women art from Okinawa 2,” 15th Oct. 2011, both at Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art
Museum.
5
With a curator, Nakao Tomomichi, I carried out surveys on women artists in India andSingapore, in the period of 12th ‒ 22nd Dec. 2012, as a preparation of this exhibition.
Especially the survey on India was fulfilling and we could interview over 20 women artists. The
title “Women In-Between” was inspired by some dialogues at that time. The excellent activities
of Indian women artists are not sufficiently introduced this time, so that another opportunity torealize an exhibition centering around the Indian women artists works is hoped for.
6
In Japan, women artistsʼ groups and exhibitions started to get organized in the 1930s, and in
1946, riding on a wave of democratization after the War, the “Association of Women Artists”
was founded. The tendency to form women artistsʼ groups after the War spread to the local
regions and prefectures. The catalogue of
exhibition to be referred to. However, those groups, later, ended up becoming
conservative ones with mostly paintings as their main stream, having some outstanding
exceptions.
7
Essay by Nalini Malani in this catalogue to be referred to. pp. 184-185.
8
Flaudette May Datuin “The 70s ‒ 80s in Philippines: Women Stepping Out” of this catalogue,
to be referred to. p. 171.
9
http://www.womanifesto.com/about/, Somporn Rodboon “Contemporary Women Art Scene
in Thailand” to be referred to. pp. 176-177.
10
22 artists have participated from the Philippines, Korea, China, Taiwan, Australia, Japan,
India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Singapore.
, Earl Lu Gallery, Lasalle-SIA College of Arts, 2000. The collectionof essays by art critics from each country was published, in which included my essay: Kokatsu
Reiko “Japanese Art in the 1990s at the Borderline Between Inside and Outside,” Binghui
Huangfu (ed.),, Earl Lu Gallery, LasalleSIA College of Arts, 2000, pp.107-117.
11
Kim Honghee supervided ssamzie space (2000-2010) at the central part of Seoul, organised
artist-in-residence programs, placed side-by-side a gallery space and trained many young artists.
In the meanwhile, she played the roles of Commissioner of Korean pavilion at the(2003), the General Director of the(2006), and the director of theGyeonggi Museum of Modern Art (2006-2011), she is now the director of the Seoul Museumof Art (2012-). She is a feminist, central figure of traction to pull internationally the Korean
contemporary art.
12
Yun Suknam, artist who takes the standing-point of driving forward women-indigenous
expressions in art, protested to the fact that she was included in the category of the “FeminineArt” in this exhibition. She seems to have expressed dissent from being confined in a ghettoizedcategory like Feminism. “<Lecture text of Yun Suknam> Why do I make Art?” (15th Jan.
2011, Waseda Hoshien) , Report on research of Grants-in-Aid of KAKEN “Study on Women
Artists in 20th Century and their Visual Representations ‒ Memories of War and Diaspora in
Asia” published by Institute of Japanese Studies, Graduate School of letters, Osaka University(Kitahara Megumi), 2011, p.121.
13
Invited to theexhibition and its
commemorating symposium which was held at the Ewha Womans University Museum, I madeoral report on the research of “Japanese Women Artists before and after World War II, 1930s ‒1950s” (can be referred to the note 1). As my visit was coincided with the exhibiting period of
theexhibition held by FAN, I could witness it as well.
14
Flaudette May Datuin “Feminist art ̶ somehow, somewhere: curating ʻtrauma, interruptedʼ”(translated into Japanese by Kokatsu Reiko) in, the Eighth issue, Image &Gender Kenkyukai, 2008, pp. 6-16. When Datuin was staying in Japan in 2005 for the survey
on women artists with the Nippon Foundation Grant, I got acquainted with her in the Image& Gender Kenkyukai, and joined her for her surveys in Fukuoka ‒ Kumamoto. She was also
invited to the International Symposium “Creative Power of Women and Fabric” organized by
Prof. Wakakusa Midori at the Institute for Woman's Studies in Kawamura Gakuen Woman's
University, in Oct. 2005. She delivered the keynote address entitled “Reclaiming the Southeast
Asian Goddess: Examples from Contemporary Art by Women (Philippines, Thailand andIndonesia),”, the forth issue, Center for Gender Studies,
Kawamura Gakuen Womanʼs University, 2006.
15
Kokatsu Reiko “Women and Art in the Philippines ‒ around the ʻtrauma, interruptedʼ,”, No.102, 2009, pp.7-15 to be referred to. From Japan,
1

participated Ito Tari, Nakanishi Miho, Watabiki Nobuko and Kum Soni.
Yoshimoto Midori “Current Situation of Feminism and Art in America,”, theEighth issue, Image & Gender Kenkyukai, 2008, pp.37-44.
17
http://feministartproject.rutgers.edu/home/ to be referred to.
18
Cornelia Butler (ed.),, The Museum of Contemporary
Art, Los Angeles, 2007.
19
Maura Reilly, Linda Nochlin (ed.),,Brooklyn Museum, 2007.
20
6 artists, namely, Ono Yoko, Kubota Shigeko, Kusama Yayoi, Idemitsu Mako, Theresa Hak
Kyung Cha, Zarina (Hashmi).
21
Yoshimoto Midori,., p. 41.
22
Replying to the survey of Maura Reilly, I recommended Yun Suknam and Inoue Hiroko, butthey were not included because of age-limit. Reilly had also surveyed Shimada Yoshiko, BuBude la Madeleine from Japan, yet, they were not chosen from the same constraint.
23
Yoshimoto,., p. 42.
16

24

(cat dʼexpo.), centre pompidou, 2009.
Works of Japanese artists like Kusama Yayoi, Tanaka Atsuko and Onodera Yuki, residing in
Paris, were exhibited all together with those of Ono Yoko, Saito Takako and Shiomi Mieko intheir Fluxus period. From Korea, there were none of Kimsooja nor of Lee Bul, but only oneof Koo Jeong-A, resident in Paris. None by the other Artists of Asian descent was included.
26
Okabe Aomi, Exhibition review: “elles@centrepompidou, artists femmes dans la collection
de musée national dʼart moderne,”, the tenth issue, Image & Gender
Kenkyukai, 2010, pp.111-112.
27
As for art, feminism and gender in France, the following essays could be referred to. Okabe
Aomi “Gender and Art in France,”, the Eighth issue, Image & Gender
Kenkyukai, 2008, pp. 57-67. Catherine Gonnard et Elisabeth Lebovici,, Editions Hazan, Paris, 2007.
28, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art. “Eonni” is a familiar term for “elder sister”
in Korean. The senior women aritsts were called “Eonni” with intimacy.
29
Chino Kaori “Gender Debates in the domain of Museum and Art History 1997-1998,”
Kumakura Takaaki/Chino Kaori (ed.),
Keio University Press, 1999, pp. 117-154. As for the women artists exhibitions or the exhibitions
from the gender view-point in Japanese art museums, the following text of mine can be referred
to: Kokatsu Reiko “Concerning the Introduction of Viewpoint of Gender in the Museums
in Japan,”, the Seventh issue, Image & Gender Kenkyukai, 2007, pp. 14-25.
30
Wakakuwa Midori, Kato Shuichi, Minagawa Masumi and Akaishi Chieko (eds.),, Seikyusha, 2006.
31, Womenʼs Art Network, 2001. Kitahara Megumi“Attention: Women At Work ‒ ʻWomen Breaking Boundaries 21ʼexhibition,”, the123rd issue, Feb. 2001, pp.112-121.
32
http://home.interlink.or.jp/~reflect/borderlinecases/index.html
Kokatsu Reiko “In the era of ʻIntolerance,ʼ Based on the Co-responding, ʻBorderline Cases:
Women on the borderlineʼ,”, the 104th issue, the “Aida” no Kai (Association of
Between), Aug. 2004, pp. 2-14, to be referred to.
33, Tokyo Metropolitan
Museum of Photography, 27th June ‒ 20th Aug. 1991.
, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 5th Sept. ‒ 27th
Oct. 1996.
, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 15th Jan.
‒ 21st March 2005. Both exhibitions were of women photographers and women artists in Japan
and North America, with a view-point of gender, curated by Kasahara Michiko.
, Shoto Museum of Art, 1996-97,
curated by Mitsuda Yuri. Those aforementioned exhibitions I organized.
34
Takahashi Mizuki “Art as a Blank Map,”, exhibition
catalogue, pp. 98-111.
35
Kurosawa Hiromi “Inner Voices, ”, exhibition catalogue, pp. 4-10.
36
Common to the artists included in Chapter 5, “The Lives of Women ‒ Departing On
Her Own,” of this exhibition. Shilpa Gupta, answering to the interview by Nakao and me(2011.12.14), says “I might have been called feminist in my motherʼs generation, but itʼs too
much! I do not want to be categorized.” In the
exhibition, there were many exhibitswith the theme focused on the historical or social issues concerning women, like those of Yee
I-Lann, Jemima Wyman, Shiota Chiharu and Oh Haji, yet, such theme was not converged as
the concept of exhibition.
37
This might also apply to the situation in Japan. Japanese women seem to be feeling lessthe gender discrimination as the age bracket gets younger. Yet, in recent years when the age
discrimination and social gap are rather increasing, the gender issue is undoubtedly still there,intertwining with those social and age issues.
38
Depending on the venue, the exhibiting artists or the number of exhibits vary.
39
Ikeuchi Yasuko “Voices and narratives opening up a site of contestation,”, the180th issue, June 2011, pp. 206-210. The following cite is the English version: http://www.
itinerantsendsforitinerant.org/
40
If we quote again from the words of Ms. Ikeuchi in her critique on Kaisen, “This is a call that
repeatedly opens up a genealogy of diverse and antagonistic narratives that are neither linear
nor monolithic.”., p. 210.
41
About the Japanese women artists, the following essay of mine could be referred to. Kokatsu
Reiko “Standing on the Borderline: Expressions by Women in the 1990s and 2000s,”
for the 110th Anniversary Project inJoshibi University of Art and Design, 2011, pp. 68-79.
25｜

Essay 1 Kokatsu Reiko ｜21