March – Yasuko Toda
About This Project
SUPPORTED BY
Curated by Banchō is our local emerging artists program in 2021/22, supported by City of Sydney. See the program overview here
We’re delighted to announce our March artist (and first for 2022!): the multi-talented, multi-disciplinary Yasuko Toda.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Yasuko Toda is a Japanese artist, animator, and illustrator who has been based in Sydney since 2017. Originally from Tokyo, Yasuko’s work explores a thematic palette of issues as seemingly disparate as islamophobia, feminism, the immigrant experience, and climate change.
Yasuko channels her concerns about the world into expository manga, as a contributing visual columnist to the now defunct Japanese online feminist publication She Is, and examines issues of sustainability through a serial column at Japanese arts magazine Blazevy where she recently recounted the 2019-2020 Australian bushfire season.
Commercial illustration has seen her work advertising artisan chocolate, on shirts and bags in Tokyo department store Parco, and in a travel guide exploring Seoul cafes.
Website: yasuko.garden
IG: @anaismiysk
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION: Temporary — 間取り
From artist Yasuko Toda:
For temporary visa holders, like students, or those on a working holiday, accommodation is the first barrier. I lived in three share houses in Sydney — arrangements I later understood to be illegal.
Work is a barrier too. Participation in the workforce often depends on English ability, so as compared to Australians or those from English speaking countries, those on temporary visas are often working under very different conditions — often relying on immigrant communities for access to work and essential services. The conditions of visas also serve to distance the lifestyles of immigrants from those of Australians.
This isn’t a lament, but an observation I thought was interesting. Immigrants occupy the same physical space as Australians, but societally, and experientially, exist on another layer.
It is said that it is ideal to work alongside Australians, to become friends with native English speakers, to live together. I was able to experience the best of Sydney through living with my Australian partner; and through friends living in various circumstances in Sydney I saw a multitude of new cultures and perspectives on the city.
For this exhibition, I’ve drawn from my own experiences and those of friends to create a series of seven comic vignettes, in black ink, framed by allegorical floor plans of living spaces.
I hope this exhibition can be a meeting point between the layers.
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「住まい」はワーキングホリデーや留学生にとってのまず一つ目の難関になるものです。私は３つのシェアハウスに住み、のちにその家の住居環境が違法であると知りました。「仕事」ももちろん難関になります。英語のレベルによって全く環境は変わっていくものであり、オーストラリアに生まれ育った、もしくは英語圏から来た滞在者とは違う状況下で働くことになります。英語を学びながら働く場合、自分の属するコミュニティーに頼った生活をする人が多いのではないでしょうか。ビザ自体にある条件もあり、オーストラリア人と同じような生活をすることはありません。
これは恨み節ではありません、ただ、同じ土地にいながらもまったく違う生活を送っていて、接点もないことに気付かされるたびにとても興味深く感じていたのです。もしオーストラリア人たちと仕事ができれば、英語が母語である人々と友人になれたら、一緒に住めたら、それが最善だと言われました。私たちが同じ場所に住んでいても違うレイヤーにいるのかもしれません。
私はオーストラリア人のパートナーと過ごしたことでシドニーの良さをたくさん知ることができ、友人たちから新しい視点や文化を知るきっかけを得ました。
この展示では、私や、友人たちの体験をコラージュし、見取り図や漫画の表現を織り混ぜ７点の水墨画を展示します。
今回の展示が、ここに生まれ育った人との接点になればよいと思います。
Curated by Banchō presents Yasuko Toda’s ‘Temporary‘ exhibition from 1 March to 2 April 2022 (open Tuesday to Saturdays from 4pm).
Please direct purchase enquiries to Curated by Banchō Project Manager Tina Wing Kee via curated@banchobar.com.au