Elly Minagawa

My current practice is a materialization of the ongoing internal conversation with myself about my identity as a Japanese-American. Through the process of forming distorted compositions of dolls that are steeped in tradition and ritual, I have come to an understanding that my connection to my heritage is both one that is ringing and true, while still feeling like I am a voyeur attaching my own fantasies to a culture that does not feel wholly mine. The figure of the doll acts as a bunshin on my behalf; they absorb my obsession with culture and heritage as a definitive fact of my being. The addition of family photographs and artifacts from childhood speak to the bond between personal experience, family, and heritage. The transcription of digital distortion into painting and printmaking has allowed me to imbue into the work a multitude of sentiments that I associate with my heritage in a way that is true to my experience growing up in an ever-increasingly digitized world. By forming images that hold distinct digital qualities I seek to highlight the incongruence of learning about traditions and rituals through the internet. Through the combination of oversaturated day-glo colors and extreme distortion, I am interested in creating a visual language in which dissonance and color articulate ideas of remembrance and contemplation.