Artist Interview: Roger Shimomura
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JASMINE FERNANDEZ This is Jasmine Fernandez at the National Portrait Gallery with Roger Shimomura and I'm going to ask you to describe your philosophy on art first.
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ROGER SHIMOMURA Ok, um, having heard that question I kind of threw it out because I don't have a philosophy associated with what I do and I think for good reason because, um , if philosophies come too early in life, I think you tend to stay married to it and there's no real flexibility and as you go through life you just start learning more and you start making adjustments.
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So I probably had some goals, you know that might be called philosophies so I never really thought of it that way and they, um and they probably change almost on a daily basis, you know depending upon how I feel and um, and what I've actually experience or achieved. So, I really don't see much purpose to having a philosophy either because I think that, perhaps, no one really is in the proper condition to have a philosophy until they are towards the end of their life, which I am probably approaching.
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And then you don't need it at that point, so therefore, what's your next question?
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JASMINE FERNANDEZ Next question would be: What does Asian American mean to you? [
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] ROGER SHIMOMURA Um, it means a lot of things, it's right at the core of everything that I do in my work. Just the small issue of having a hyphen between Asian and American, y'know I think about that and I could think of five to ten paintings or a whole series of paintings that I could do that might encourage getting rid of that hyphen.
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And uh you could even do work based on why that hyphen was an achievement at one point. And so, a lot of the work that I have been doing more recently has to do with this near denial of the Asian part of that word and saying - proclaiming - that I'm an American first that happens to be Asian.
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But a lot of times, we do that and we emphasize things, or over emphasize them, just to try to get a point across, not that I would ever try to deny my Asian-ness for all the positive reasons that have been expressed by all kinds of people that are Asian, or any other ethnic group for that matter, but I can't see any constructive purpose to get rid of all that.
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Um but for political reasons, one might downplay that for a while, but um it is, it is everything - the perception that I have, or the perception that other people have towards me, of sometimes purely being Asian only creates problems and issues. Obvious limitations placed upon that word - being Asian - and immediately after that comes the stereotype that you're only capable of what the stereotypical Asian is capable of y'know achieving or performing.
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So y'know these are all issues that I've dealt with in my work and uh even the uh incarceration during World War Two of Japanese Americans uh relates to that issue as well. That when Pearl Harbor was attacked those of us who thought we were Americans of Japanese descent became the Japanese enemy, there was no distinction made. So once again that word became very powerful, y'know the distinction between Asian and Asian-American.
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Um, y'know initially this exhibition was titled "Asians", I believe, "in America: Purchase of Encounter" and I raised protest to that and said y'know when you say Asians in America um think of it in terms of "Italians in America", "Germans in America", "Mexicans in America"; sounds like foreigners to me.
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Jasmine Fernandez: Yes.
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Roger Shimomura: Y'know so when you say "Asians in America" y'know it excludes uh the American-ness. Fortunately they agreed with me and uh changed the title or else I wouldn't have been in the show today. So
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Jasmine Fernandez: What are the classic stories, jokes or songs in your family that you can share with us?
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Roger Shimomura: You know, I-um
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Roger Shimomura: I can't recall anything specific. What I can recall is one thing that my grandmother always used to say to me which I guess could fall in one of those categories
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Roger Shimomura: but it was more of a curse than anything and she always used to say,
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Roger Shimomura: 'Roger remember whatever you do in life, whether it's good or bad, will reflect upon the entire Japanese race.'
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Jasmine Fernandez: Wow.
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Roger Shimomura: And boy, she used to tell me that at every opportunity she had
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Roger Shimomura: and I remember hearing that when I was young and really didn't appreciate, you know, the full meaning of that but then later on, I started to see it in play.
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Roger Shimomura: Uh I started to see it in the values that were expressed by you know my mother and father um you know this sort of overt consciousness about what are they gonna think?
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Roger Shimomura: You know if you do that, then of course my feeling was who cares what they think, you know?
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Roger Shimomura: Um so, you know, suddenly the Americanization, you know, of the family right?
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Roger Shimomura: Um. But, you know, I have to say that even today, at the age that I'm at, I can still hear my grandmother saying that to me.
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Roger Shimomura: And um although I would hate to admit it, I think I bought into some of it.
Jasmine Fernandez: Mhm
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Roger Shimomura: Fortunately, you know, I've never been in a situation I could recall, at least, that I said that to my kids. So I think that, hopefully I ended that tradition, I made it a short tradition.
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Jasmine Fernandez: (laugh) That's some powerful words to say. In regards to your art, then
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Jasmine Fernandez: Were you always, were you always a painter or like when do you really start that art form?
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Roger Shimomura: Ah, well I, from the time I was a child, I loved to draw and ah we I had three uncles that were all artists and they were all very accomplished artists in Seattle, they were sort of my role models when I grew up, but I wanted to be a commercial artist and make a lot of money.
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Jasmine Fernandez: Aha
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Roger Shimomura: and uh, I found out very quickly that um I didn't work well with clients.
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Jasmine Fernandez: (laughs)
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Roger Shimomura: and came to the realization that it's almost the exact opposite of being a fine artist because when you're a commercial artist you have to do what the client likes you know
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and you have to do what more people like, what the mass public likes, when you are a fine artist it becomes very egocentric, so it's really the opposite.
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So um I ended up changing after 7 years, after graduation, I ended up going back to school and studying painting.
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Jasmine Fernandez: Mhm
Roger Shimomura: And ah been doing that ever since. I taught painting and drawing and performance art before while I was at the University of Kansas and performance art was really my favorite part of that whole experience.
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I taught it for 20 years and I was doing it myself too.
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Jasmine Fernandez: Oh
Roger Shimomura: I wasn't acting, but I was writing, directing and producing, and uh did these performances all over the country
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Jasmine Fernandez: And why was that your favorite over painting?
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Roger Shimomura: Because it- I was able to draw from a lot of the things my grandmother and grandfather left, and my grandmother left 56 years worth of dairies
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over her entire experience living in America um and she also, you know, being the immigrant, the pioneer,
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had a real sense of history and so she ah made a lot of ah she wrote a lot of articles about her experience in this country
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Jasmine Fernandez: Mhm
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Roger Shimomura: and during the war, in camp, wrote a lot of haiku and poems and wrote songs
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um that really defined the popular notion that the Japanese-American, especially Issei
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were real quiet, the first generation were real quiet and just kind of accepted it
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Jasmine Fernandez: Mhm
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Roger Shimomura: Um because they were irate
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Jasmine Fernandez: Mhm
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Roger Shimomura: and these poems showed it and they were written to folk songs, Japanese folks songs so they would recite these poems of anger
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but singing songs that they knew from Japan, so anyway, I had all this information that, you know, she had left behind, and photographs, and everything else, and uh you can't paint about those things
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Jasmine Fernandez: Mhm
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Roger Shimomura: and so I decided to write some you know small performance pieces and I've always been interested in watching it happen, not being in it myself,
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(cough) and directing, and um so one thing led to another, and before you knew it, I was doing it ah, 50% of my time was spent traveling around you know, putting these on, and they are all about the, the Asian-American experience
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Roger Shimomura: We did one here, in fact, at the, I think it was the American Art Museum, I can't remember, but it was all about the incarceration period
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Jasmine Fernandez: Mhm
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Roger Shimomura: and about an hour long program, and that's the show that we took around through about 15 different locations
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Jasmine Fernandez: That's nice
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Roger Shimomura: around the country, but that was really became my first love especially when I started teaching it, and it eventually turned into a major area of study and you could actually get your degree in Performance now at Kansas and ah
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Roger Shimomura: We have this wonderful Korean woman that's teaching-
Jasmine Fernandez: That's nice.
Roger Shimomura: teaching right now.
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Jasmine Fernandez: Um I have one more question, and this is after like looking at your art cause I really, I really like that form, especially the cartoonist style. Um, when did you start putting yourself in your art?
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Roger Shimomura: Um I'd say about six or several years ago.
Jasmine Fernandez: Mhm.
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Roger Shimomura: (cough) I'm not um, I can't remember the very first time because I probably did it once or twice earlier than that
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Roger Shimomura: but it's really with this American knock-off series that I started doing in every painting.
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Roger Shimomura: And uh so even today I'm sort of divided by time between doing paintings and three series.
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Roger Shimomura: One is the "Minidoka on my Mind" series about the camps and then the other one is about stereotypes, uh and then the third one is this American knock-off series and the knock-off series is the one that I depict myself at the time
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Jasmine Fernandez: Interesting. Okay, thank you.
