Thursday, April 17, 2014

Pyuu Piru

Meeting Pyuu Piru san

On 12/4/14 I went to Nishi Hachioji station to meet PyuuPiru san and go to her studio. I get to meet her husband as well. In Japan, after a SRS (sex Reassignment Surgery), the transwoman can go and change her legal documents and officially get married. But for late bloomers, who transition later after marriaged is a bit hard. And there are no laws allow them to get the official marriage ceritificate.

Before i met Pyuu Piru san i’ve already was introduced to her by another API fellow of the same year, Mayumi san because she work with her together before at Yokohama art museum.

What i love about Pyu Piruu san’s work is the materials she’s using, alot of fabrics and its like a mix media, a sculptures and also knitting, sewing, public performance, videos. I felt like i need to do more as well and was really inspired after went to her studio which just right behind her house. I was also introduced to her parents and her husband and they’re quite surpirsed that i’m doing research on transwoman here in Japan.

Pyuu Piru san is using many different materials for her work to express herself as a transwoman, her life before when she was young and during her transition adn after transition. I was definitely inspired to do more than 2D illustrations and some small public performance.

She also shares her story durin g her surgery with one of the most famous SRS surgeon in Bangkok, which i was told that he;s closing down his clinic soon probably of old age or made enough for his life already.
Some of Pyu Piru’s work inspired me do to do more and explore different mediums to express myself as an artist.

From her book:
"Pyuupiru has felt a devise discord between body and mind since childhood, and this has always been her motive for making art. She has reconstruct her body in a search for an ideal self with harmony between body and mind. She has made her way of life itself into art. The self-portrait series shown here is a record of the body created over a two year period in a male-to-female sex change. It also tracks mental changes from the time in childhood when PyuuPiru first became aware of her dilemma through the tragic period of bifurcation of mind and body to the present when she finally obtained her ideal body. 

Anyone can relate to PyuuPiru's reconstruction of her body if they think back to times when they felt that their body was separated from their mind, were disturbed by the gap they sensed, and acted to bring their body closer to what they saw as the ideal. PyuuPiru's attempt to work out her individuality represents the earnest desire of human beings to understand themselves, which has been the same in all the ages.


Pyuupiru's ultimate work, Virgin White, is a marriage with the self, symbolizing the union of body and mind. Her art, which closely associated with her life, reaches a ind of closure in this work."













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