nwasianweekly.com
April 24, 2004
Join the Northwest Asian Weekly for Rainbow Bookfest: Celebrating Authors
of Color at Union Station, 401 S. Jackson St. in Seattle, on April 24,
2004. It will feature panel discussions, readings by authors, a poetry
slam, workshops for kids and much more. Admission is free. Visit www.rainbowbookfest.com
for more info.
A Quick Look at Books
Roger Shimomura: Stereotypes and Admonitions.
Published
by Greg Kucera Gallery, 2004.
“I have often told my students that if making art is of paramount
importance in their lives and that if they are willing to commit themselves
to hard work and maintaining an engaged mind, they will eventually be
able to free themselves of everything they learned about art. I know from
my experience that I have found this to be true,” Roger Shimomura
said.
Shimomura’s engagement has led straight to the formal study of racist
iconography, as often portrayed in advertising and commerce. His high-keyed
paintings and prints are serious exposés of individual as well
as cultural failures of communication, tact and wisdom. Where some have
cracked under the pressure of a divided society, this artist made a fine
art career — as a professor and an artist — tracing his everyday
life as a Japanese American.
Shimomura mounted a one-man show of his work at Seattle’s Greg Kucera
Gallery in March. Art collectors could take home his disturbing images
for $5,000 a piece. Half of the works were sold from the exhibit! Those
who peered into the gallerist’s office, though, found another treasure.
A slim book about the size of a car map was printed to accompany the exhibit,
and it is still available at a moderate price.
The catalogue holds not only all the images in the exhibit but also Shimomura’s
detailed wall cards, often describing a personal incident that preceded
the painting.
The notes allow access to the inner life of an important American artist.
It also gives the reader greater ability to ponder the issues than a breeze
through a crowded gallery might.
The catalogue was made possible by the gallery, the artist and a grant
from the Joan Mitchell Foundation.
All Over Creation, by Ruth Ozeki.
Published
by Viking Press, 2003.
Ozeki’s wild ride into the Idaho potato fields is laced with asides
on everything from genetic engineering to the dramatic evocation of seeds
popping underground. All Over Creation, a novel, connects the dots of
disease, food and environment, but manages to also reveal much about the
lives of some who are still living off the land in the modern American
West.
“No one said much either when Lloyd brought my mom home from Japan
after the war, at least not to his face,” says a character named
Yumi. Creation revolves around the lives of a farming family — Lloyd
and Momoko Fuller and their daughter Yumi — who long ago managed
to silence clucking neighbors with their successes, only to find other
cultural forces blowing through their lives like a cold spring wind.
As novelist Barbara Kingsolver has pointed out, Ozeki’s second book
is nothing less than the Edward Abbey’s Monkey Wrench Gang fast-forwarded
30 years — but with a fresh and individual voice. Something of a
modern fictional crusader, the author manages to show eager readers the
dark side of modern agribusiness while remaining witty and even optimistic.
It was Abbey who famously said that it isn’t enough to fight for
the environment; it is equally important to get into it and enjoy it.
And enjoying life and its heartaches is definitely part of this environmental
romp. Ozeki’s activists journey across America dressed as cows and
potatoes. The author’s gift for dialogue and emotional connection
allows us to slowly come to grips with Lloyd’s “dying earth”
and makes sense of Yumi’s complex flight from adoring parents.
Ann-Marie Stillion can be reached at annmarie@nwasianweekly.com.
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