We first discovered Bruce Yonemoto at Art Miami last December. His striking portraits of Asian-American men dressed in Civil War costumes posed in classic poses of the era. (Bruce is represented by
Alexander Gray Associates in New York)
Having attended the Mass College of Art's benefit auction the past few years, we are on their mailing list and were surprised to recieve an inviation to their visiting artist
speaker series -- which featured out favorite Yonemoto photograph as the main image!
We attended the lecture on Wednesday. Hey, this is a great opportunity! We were expecting crowds, but discovered about 25 attendees -- almost entirely students. Bruce spoke for just over an hour and we discovered that he is first and foremost a video and installation artist. Some of his early works consider the materiality of the film screen itself. He has art created out of the material used to make movie theater screens. He also uses a variety of portable movie screens to create a layering effect upon which a movie is shown. Another issue that Bruce examines is the passage of time. He had an interesting piece where he projected a video up into a glass of water. Inside the glass is a sugar cube upon which you can see the video. Of course, as you watch the video, the sugar cube is disolving, becoming increasingly noticable.
I would say that the most common theme throughout Bruce's work is irony. Bruce creates a "screen" made of chopsticks, made supposedly from trees from the rainforest -- upon which he projects images of the rainforest. In another installation, he uses globes, inside which he projects the movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth"
Back to his Civil War series, Bruce lives near a major costume company in California. He rented Civil War costumes which thought might have been used in the Movie "Birth of a Nation" -- a film which is considered to have re-started the KKK. Using costumes which may have been involved in such a racially controversial movie, Bruce places non-white models. Another interesting irony that Bruce points out is how the entire racial discussion around the Civil war is around black and white -- leaving no room for any discussion of other races. In fact, Yonemoto states, that Asian-Americans fought in the Civil War and there is nearly no discussion of this in history books. Beyond the political underpinnings, the photos are quite striking. Although the costumes and poses are quite traditional, your eye is somewhat jarred because it is not expecting to see the Asian-American men in the Civil War costumes, nor are you expecting the vivid color. The strong background colors together with the patterns of the painted floor clothes contribute to a strong graffic impact.
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