In my visual responses I looked at the most famous geisha Mineko Iwasaki. The reason to look at this Geisha in particular was because she was the main source of inspiration for the novel and the movie – Memoirs of a Geisha –
Perhaps one of the most famous pieces of media depicting Geishas and the piece of media that cemented the Geisha in international pop-culture. Although the work itself heavily sexualised the role of the Geishas, and give the Geisha certain roles that only applied to courtesans, which are actual high class prostitutes in Japan. Iwasaki actually fought against the story’s inaccuracies after it was published but by then, the damage has already been done.
To construct this piece I used traditional Japanese origami paper as my background. I want this piece in the simplest sense, to look pretty and decorative, the same ways Geishas turns themselves into human ornaments as the way that they entertain. I then followed with the inspiration from Eugene Lee Yang’s short film; Comfort Women. In depicting the geisha as something to be consumed. I chose to replace certain parts of the Geisha with salmon when the chopsticks are picking her apart, showing that to the “consumers”, she is literally a piece of meat to be eaten.
I then covered her eyes with
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