Curatorial Projects > Determining Domain (2012-13)

Scott Tsuchitani
Memoirs of a Sansei Geisha: Snapshots of Cultural Resistance (left), 2004-05
Lord It’s The Samurai: Myth + Militarism + Man-boy Love (right), 2009-12
Mixed media

Tsuchitani’s socially engaged interventions have been recognized by scholars from a range of disciplines around the U.S., and have demonstrated impact on academic discourse on four continents. He combines poignant narrative with unexpected humor and latent stereotype to expose how structures of power and dominance have created an atmosphere of societal conditioning. He presents work and documentation from two projects that utilized image appropriation and parody to critique recent exhibitions presented at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, CA: Geisha: Beyond the Painted Smile in 2004 and Lords of the Samurai in 2009.  Appropriating the imagery and graphic design used in the marketing campaigns for both exhibitions, Tsuchitani created his own posters and flyers that subtly subverted the original message as a means of providing an institutional critique to the exhibitions and the marketing of these exhibitions.  He posted his versions of posters and flyers throughout the city, which received a fair amount of media attention, including large articles in The San Francisco Chronicle.

Determining Domain

November 7, 2012 – January 19, 2013
Intersection for the Arts
San Francisco, CA

Photo credit: Scott Chernis