Yoshiko Shimada

Title: A Field Trip of a Red School Bag
Material: A school bag, photographs, a notebook

Artist Information

Yoshiko Shimada: Born in Tokyo, printmaker and visual artist Yoshiko Shimada received her BA in fine arts from Scripps College in California in 1982. She began to explore themes related to the representation of Japanese war history in earnest following the1989 death of the Showa emperor. In her prints and installation pieces, Shimada explores the roles and responsibilities of Japanese and other Asian women in World War II: especially the involuntary prostitution of Asian women as “comfort women” for Japanese soldiers. She went further examining the issue of military prostitution in her following work ‘Made in Occupied Japan’. This photo- and video-based work was made in Tachikawa, her hometown that used to be a US military base.
She spent 1998-1999 in NY at P.S. 1 as a resident artist with Asian Cultural Council grant. In 2000, she worked with a film director Barbara Hammer on her documentary film ‘Devotion’ which examine the legacy of 60’s film maker, Shinsuke Ogawa. From 2004 to 2010, she traveled extensively in Asia (with Nippon Foundation API grant) and Europe(Danish Art Council and Sasakawa Scandinavia grants) to research, collect and install ‘family secrets’.
In the last few years she has conducted a research of Bigakko, an alternative art school in Tokyo established in 1969. Her main interest is in the interplay of art and radical politics in the era. She is co-curating an exhibition ‘Anti-Academy: alternative art education in 1960s’ with Alice Maude-Roxby, which will open at Southampton in late 2013. She is currently a ph.D candidate at Kingston University, London.

1959 Born in Tokyo
1982 Graduated from Scripps College, Ca. U.S.A. B.A. in Humanities
1994 Residency at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
1995 Recipient of Berlin City Women Artist Program Award
1998-99 Recipient of Asian Cultural Council grant, Residency at P.S.1, New York
2000 Lecturer, Gakushuin university
2002,2004 Lecturer, Keio University
2006 Recipient of Danish Arts Council grant. Residency in Copenhagen
2006-07 Recipient of Nippon Foundation API Senior Fellowship grant. Residency and research in Manila, Chiang Mai, Yogyakarta (Indonesia)
2008-2009 Recipient of Danish Art Council grant and Sasagawa Scandinavia fund, residency in Copenhagen
2008-10 Recipient of British Council PM2 award, residency in London
2011- Ph.D candidate, Art, Design, Architecture department, Kingston University, London

Selected Group Exhibitions

1995 Age of Anxiety, Powerplant, Toronto, Canada
1996 Gender, beyond memories, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo
1997 Lord of the Rim-in herself, for herself, Hsing-chong Culture Center, Taiwan
Flexible Co-existence, Art Tower Mito, Mito
1999 Windows-inside, outside, Gwangju City Art Museum, Gwangju, Korea
2000 Dark Mirrors from Japan, De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam
Yume no Ato, Haus am Waldsee Berlin, Kunsthalle Baden-Baden
2001 Sex and Consumerism, Brighton University, Aberythtowyth Art Center, Wales and other venues in the UK
Spirits, workshops and theater performance with Theatreworks, Singapore
2002 There, Gwangju Biennale project 2, Gwangju, Korea
East Asian Women and Herstories, Seoul Women’s Center, Seoul, Korea
Empathy, Fujikawa Gallery, Osaka
Attitude 2002, Kumamoto Cisty Museum of Contemporary Art, Kumamoto
2003 Seoul-Asia Art Now, Maronier Art Center, Seoul, Korea
City-net Asia, Seoul City Art Museum, Seoul
Trans-Okinawa, Highways, Los Angeles
2004 Borderline Cases, A.R.T. gallery, Tokyo
2005 Life, actually, Tokyo Metropolitan Musum of Contermporary Art,Tokyo
Fantastic Asia, Songkuk Museum, Seoul
2006 Mapping the Body NRLA Festival, Tramway, Glasgow
Sex Arbeit NGBK, Berlin
2007 Felt Experience Catalyst Arts, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Doll House Shanghai Xuhui Art Museum, Shanghai
2009 Open performance festival, 798 Art Zone, Beijing, China
2010 Louder than Bombs, Stanley Picker Gallery, London, UK
2012 Art, Performance and Activism in Contemporary Japan, Pump House, London

Selected Solo Exhibitions

1995 Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo (also 96,98,2002)
Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
1996 Keio University Art Center, Tokyo
1997 Hiraya Gallery, Manila
John Batten Gallery, Hong Kong
A Space Gallery, Toronto
1999 Asia/Pacific Studies Institute, New York University, New York
2000 Kyoto Seika University Gallery, Kyoto
2001 Centre A, Centre for Asian Contemporary Art, Vancouver
2006 Bones in Tansu – Family Secrets University of Philippines, Manila
2007 Bones in Tansu – Family Secrets Chiang Mai University Art Museum, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Bones in Tansu – Family Secrets Cemeti Art House, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2008 Bones in Tansu – Family Secrets Christina Wilson Gallery, Copenhagen
2009 Bones in Tansu – Family Secrets Stanley Picker gallery, London
Bones in Tansu – Family Secrets Print Studio, Hamilton, Canada

Public Collections

New York Public Library, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Keio University Art Center, Kyoto Seika University, City University of New York

Symposia / Conferences

2002 Empathy, dialogue of German, Israeli, Palestinian and Japanese women artists
Ritsumeikan University (organized)
Perfromance art studies international at Dokkyo University, Tokyo (participated)
2004 Borderline Cases – co-responding on the borders, women artists from Korea and Japan
Keio University, 21st century COE program (organized)
Diaspora/Art International Conference, Tokyo Keizai University (organized)
Frontiers of Gender Studies “how the power perform” Ochanomizu Women’s University Gender Studies 21st century COE program (participated)
2005 The 9th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women, Ewha University, Seoul (participated)
2009-10 Art of Intervention, Collaborative art project between Kingston University, London and Kyoto Seika University

Teaching and lecture experience:

Teaching:
2000 “Contemporary art practice” at art history dept. Gakushuin University, Tokyo
2001 “Gender and Art” at Bigakko, a private contemporary art institution, Tokyo
2002 “Contemporary Art in Japan” at economy dept. Keio University, Tokyo
2004 “Contemporary Art in Japan” at literature dept. Keio University, Tokyo
2009-10 “Contemporary Art in Japan” research fellow, Kingston University, London