Imperial Animations in Transpacific Contemporary Art situates the Japanese Empire as a world-historical event that persists today through pervasive and deep impacts on regional and global politics. Considering contemporary artwork from across the transpacific region, Namiko Kunimoto documents efforts to expose colonial trauma and reveal its presence in shaping political liberalism in Japan as well as the global rise of aspirational fascism. At the heart of these artistic endeavors is a drive to animate, both in the sense of digitalization and performance and in the urge to enliven, mobilize, and reveal the continuities of imperialism today. The animate art addressed in this book urges us to think critically about imperialism and its links to the digital age, land, racism, and violence, thereby inviting us to reenvision our collective future.
Contents
Note on Translations and Names
Introduction
1. Shimada Yoshiko: Art, Gender, and Race in the Afterlives of Japanese
Imperialism
2. Give Me a Light: Militarism and Japan's Art Historical Present
3. Ho Tzu Nyen: Un/masking the Façades of Fascism
4. Redressive Acts: Japanese Canadian Art, Liberal Democracy, and
Countering Anti-Asian Racism
Epilogue: Tiger Tales and Liberalism
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Namiko Kunimoto is Director of the Center for Ethnic Studies and Associate Professor in the Department of History of Art at The Ohio State University. She is author of The Stakes of Exposure: Anxious Bodies in Postwar Japanese Art.
