Semana Santa / Cloning Eve and Geisha - 2003

This narrative takes place in Venice, Italy. A live cloned mouse, computer mice and a keyboard in the painting symbolize high tech culture while a priest represents historical and ethical viewpoints in the US. The US Congress recently had a series of intense debates on whether or not cloning a human being is morally or scientifically acceptable.

Here, cloned Eves, cloned geisha, and cloned samurai are seen visiting Venice. The samurai are Japanese people who have had facial and body surgeries to become a western man and woman. They abandoned their samurai faces and wanted to be western. They not only had facial surgery, but also changed their entire bodies.

I call US culture the "Culture of Unlimited Imagination." Commercial products in this country thrive endlessly. Americans' "Overcoming Nature" belief provides continuous national entertainment and constantly brings out new invention. Americans' drive to become beautiful and for physical fitness by exercise or just by surgically draining fat from their bodies is conceptually unthinkable to a Japanese such as myself.

Cloning has brought out ethical, social and cultural issues and also created philosophical and spiritual dilemmas. In an affluent society such as the States, boundless scientific progress continues to invent the unimaginable. Commercial products also overwhelm us, pushing the limits of imagination. Daily dramas expressed by CNN and other media create an ironically warped "Culture of Decadence." Any direction you look in this nation reveals drama.

Who would even think in terms of changing one's entire body or sexuality- even changing the length of one's legs or genitalia. Americans seem to be comfortable dealing with their bodies like they would deal with an automobile. If parts of their bodies don't work, replace them with new parts. Americans are incredibly rational. Caught between science, ethics and sexuality, cloning issues have highlighted liberalism vs. conservatism. Since cloning doesn't involve a sexual relationship or conception, it has shaken the west's foundation of morality and spirituality.

Semana Santa / Venus' Security Check - 2004

Venus has been stopped at a London airport's security check. Although she showed her ID card (the seashell) to a security guard, she was still treated as suspect. She was strip searched as if she was a suicide bomber. Venus was humiliated and dehumanized.

The Tower of London, red boxes (London's public telephone booths), the Tate Modern, the Millennium Bridge and St Patrick's Cathedral are depicted in the background of the bottom triptych. In London, phone boxes' interiors are covered with explicit erotic images and nightclub ads that reflect one aspect of the English cultural landscape.

The triptych on top was inspired by priests' sexual abuse issues. I understand that the sexual abuse was more widespread than what the media reported. It extended from child sexual abuse to woman's sexual abuse cases according to investigations stemming from the original complaints.

This reminds me of Spanish Inquisition history when churches discovered that there were many priests' sexual abuses. This was causing the church to lose support from their members. Churches at this time had to reform so that they could sustain their financial structure and control. This is exactly what we are seeing repeated today.

To me, these problem behaviors could stem from the priests' vow of celibacy. The suppression of sexuality, it seems to me, could lead to the un-controllable explosion of a volcano. It is the nature of sexual desire to find its way out somewhere, somehow. It is only natural that we have sexual desire. Trying to erase it seems to go against the natural flow of the biological human body.

Chastity is a tough assignment. Appreciating love, sexual desire and respecting that the nature of the human body is a gift and a celebration is important. Repressing sexuality could easily end up with un-controllable hot lava that can easily flow awry into sexual abuse. Sexuality and ethics are closely related. The priests and women in this triptych are tied together and struggling with sexual ethics.

US Inquisition / The Pope of Thong - 2003

Sexuality v. sexual ethics is the theme of this piece. S&M gear is nothing new to religious penitential rituals. They are closely related in terms of their origins. Today the media controls our daily life on many levels. There are ads for work out programs and work out machines, MTV rock bands and Janet Jackson's one side breast exposure, an expensive thin string and small triangle pad that are organized as a thong. A thong is popular among the teens today. A culture of titillation and seduction is what we have in this consumer culture.

The Pope in this narrative wears a thong since he is hip. The children here imply priests' sexual abuse issues. A pregnant woman who has been beheaded could imply severed and tormented sexuality. Two dominatrixs are investigating an archbishop on Twin Towers of Babel. Symbolically all of the women in this piece represent humans who are supportive of human sexuality and knowledge.

Venus' Serpentine Confession - 2003

This narrative takes place in red boxes (phone booths) along the Serpentine (a lake in Hyde Park) in London. Priests confess to women in the red boxes. A woman in the center panel on the top triptych is running away from a priest who had breast Implants. Surgical technology and people's attitude toward high technology is moving incredibly fast nowadays. An astonishing number of people have artificial hearts, cosmetic and body surgeries. This is amazing to me coming from Japanese cultural roots where I always understood that our bodies should be gracefully accepted as fate.

The bottom part of this triptych reveals priests and women confessing in Manhattan's Cloisters. A bishop investigates by torturing a woman on an iron rack. Another bishop at a podium apologizes to women and nuns for his church's priests' sexual abuses cases. A priest who is baptizing a baby gives a historical view of the church's sacraments.

The backside of this triptych (closed) is a travelogue. Lynda and I visited the Tate Modern, walked along the Tower of London and later visited Madrid and the headquarters of the Spanish Inquisition in Toledo. We also visited Naples, Pompeii and Ireland in 2003. Highlights of each place are depicted in this composition.