Here is my spread page in the book ” GURLESQUE“

Short Essay for NY ARTS MAGAZINE WINTER 2010 issue

http://www.nyartsmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=575242:spread-your-wings-&catid=373:street&Itemid=836

Spread Your Wings / AIKO

I first experienced New York City without being able to speak. Coming from Japan, I felt the language and culture were barriers, and it was as though I had a communication disability. Street art broke that wall for me. In the media studies, I agreed with Marshall McLuhan’s idea that media is an extension of the body: street art is my media and the extension of my body that enables me to communicate with the city; it is my language.

I remember my first unauthorized act involving public space was in Tokyo in the early 90s. With a friend’s help to figure out the transmission, I broadcasted a TV channel that people within a few miles of my college could see. It showed my short films and other flicks that I liked. The bootleg broadcasts got local media’s coverage, and shortly after the article I received a letter from the Japanese government stating that I had to stop; it was illegal.

The fantasy of reaching random people to communicate my ideas took a new form in New York. My first street art experience was wheat-pasting my self-portrait naked all around Lower Manhattan. Even though I was arrested and spent the night in jail, the dialogue continued as I went back to each wall, to add to the pieces, to see other people’s responses and the way the art had been weathered in layers. I felt comfortable through this conversation; I found my passion, and New York City became my best friend.

Physical activity is an important part of my work. To project strong art with a positive message in public, I realized that I need to maintain a strong core in body and spirit. I stopped thinking about negative things when I started to focus on my own self and sexuality. My paintings started to speak more vividly, sexily, about love and life, eros, as well as everyday emotions and memories.

Looking at beauty is better than looking at sadness. There is so much sadness in the world already. My paintings are abstract love stories based on found images and photographs I’ve taken. My art conveys universal themes and emotions that people can share and respond to with their own fantasies, flashbacks, or experiences.

The human body is something I’m really interested in because it’s the only thing that I own and I have control of—it’s the one thing that stays with us through our lives—and for me, the female body is the most beautiful form. I enjoy femininity, and I feel there is so much positive energy in discovering the beauty every woman has.

Nowadays, to communicate by using female bodies as sculpture, I use actual women and make them perform as if the beautiful butterfly girls came alive from my paintings. For me these are the ultimate pieces of art that cannot be bought or sold. 
Each of us is a unique individual, like a beautiful butterfly. My butterfly ladies are a symbol of the idea that we are part of nature. I think we need to recognize that on this planet we are part of the same family, with all its different shades. I celebrate life and sexuality in my art, and I feel that in my exploration these past ten years I’ve made a big circle: I put images of myself on walls, and now I want to bring the images that I’ve 
created back into reality, in my own body.

I wrote short story about my recent trip in Shanghai for BSA.

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theBlog/?p=6503

If you want to skip intro and just read my essay, here is…enjoy

Shanghai Evening by Aiko

The last time I visited Shanghai was in the spring of 2006. It’s been only 3 years but it seems like the city became much more powerful, more of a commercial center, and more developed. Instead of finding my favorite local massage place and cute junk stores that I liked to go to, I found many squares with new buildings, luxury stores, offices, restaurants, bars, and international chains like Starbucks and Burger King.

The largest city in China, Shanghai is getting ready to hold World Expo next year. Shanghai’s landmark, The Bund, is getting fully renovated for the event and tall new buildings are flashing colorful lights and neon signs in the night sky. The whole city is full of dust caused by the never-ending demolition and construction.

The neighborhood of Mo Gan Shan Lu reminds me a bit of Chelsea and Soho in NYC; old industrial warehouses turned into Chinese contemporary art galleries. I’ve heard that there is a lot of tourist traffic from different countries that comes to shop for very expensive art there. As a sharp contrast, there are long graffiti walls and abandoned houses on the other side of the same street. I am sure they will be torn down and turned into more fancy buildings soon. Knowing this, I had a sudden impulse to leave a little piece of my art on this street before heading back to Brooklyn.

At 8pm, I arrived in Mo Gan Shan Lu on that same street. This was when I realized that some of those “abandoned” houses are actually not abandoned. Some of these darkened houses still have families living there; they were having dinner and drinking on the street with small chairs and tables.  I got a little nervous. What if these people start to scream at me and call the police? What if they want to charge me money or create another kind of issue?  I’ve had some trouble like that before in different cities and I was worried that this may be the moment when my first street art experience in Shanghai could be end up as the worst one…

I thought for a moment and said to myself, “Well. Let me just hit it. It takes only a few minutes anyway.”

As soon as I started spraying on the wall, people in the neighborhood also noticed the noise and the smell of a stranger. I had to keep going – I didn’t want to leave unfinished piece there. A few people walked toward me and as they came closer they began talking to me.  I don’t understand Chinese, but their voices were very loud. Their loud voices attracted other people, who began to gather around me. I kept only looking at the wall until I finished it.

When I was finished, I looked around. I didn’t realize until then but I had a large audience standing behind me watching and talking.  Men and women, even a couple of security guards from across the street.

I said “Ni hao (hello)” with big smile, then “Hao?(good work?)”. A few of the guys started yelling at the painted wall, and it sounded to me like they were very upset. I asked my friend to translate.

“You don’t need a bikini on her. Next time you should better paint her just naked,” said one drunk man as he pointed out the breast. This made all of us begin laughing.

“Oh watch, a cop is coming!,” somebody else said. They pointed to an old lady slowly walking towards us to see what was happening. We all laughed at that joke too.

Amazingly, it seems like I was some entertainment for their evening and we all had a little moment together.  My mission had ended very well!

That night overlaps with memories of with my early street art experiences in NYC. When I arrived in NY, I was not able to speak English at all and I felt a great disability because of it. Art was (and still is) my language to communicate with people and to get to know about city.  I am happy to create art, share with friends and random people who I meet in the public sphere and I like to see them enjoying my art.  My experience on that night made me think about how I first got into street art and why I love street art again.

http://www.realkyoto.jp/interview/index.php?itemid=1516

I enjoyed talking to writer/interviewer Yosuke Takahashi, and it came out very interesting.
It is only in Japanese at this moment but he is working on English version as well..