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Duality Duplicity

Janice Tanaka

1980 00:07:00 United StatesEnglishColorMono4:3Video
Tags:
Body, Family

Description

This arresting early work conveys a tension that emanates from what Tanaka posits as life's basic dualities: male/female, past/present, known/unknown. By focusing issues of identity, doubt, wonder, and awareness through the body, and the bodies of her ancestors, Tanaka succeeds in creating a work with both personal and political power. Tanaka creates a unique voice that speaks of her experience of maturing into womanhood, repeating the refrain, "I my mother." An experimental video, this work contains one of the first examples of flicker editing.

About Janice Tanaka

California-based Janice Tanaka is considered a pioneer in the use of processed images within experimental narrative form. She brings a painter’s sensibility to her intricately textured video collages that blend social and political observations, philosophical inquiries, and personal introspection. Her work uses original footage, appropriated media images, and densely layered electronic processing to transform the autobiographical into the universal. Her videos treat issues of Asian American history and identity, from the enduring trauma of internment camps during World War II to the blending of cultural values from the Old to New World.