deadline for CGS/ICU exhibition and workshop

deadlines exhibition:

Dear Shieko-san,

Arigatou! It was great to discuss further about your exhibition and workshop.

Hope everything will go smoothly!! (sending good vibes for you to draw!!)

Time is ticking, but let's work this out to create an exciting one together ne :) 

Okay, so here is what we have talked today.

If you have any question or correction, please let me know. 

Also, about the rainbow flag that you're thinking of making, I'm willing to help you with that. 

I'm usually available on Tuesday and Thursday, and also free on the 24th (sat) and 25th (sun).

So please feel free to ask me if you need a hand to paint :) 

【May 14 (wed) noon】

・send mao to ZIN info flier to print (shieko)

・description of exhibition (shieko)

>> about 100-200 words in English 

・description of workshop (mao)

・class room reservation (mao)

・ask how big is the exhibition wall (mao > reference center staff)

【May 19 (mon) noon】

> Event poster DUE and submit to Kato-san for the final touch up (shieko) 

* after finalizing the poster, CGS will start sending an announcement regarding on your exhibition through campus mail, FB, twitter and so on.  

【May 23 (fri) come to CGS @ noon】

Getting ready for exhibition preparation!!!

> printing out shieko san's artwork (mao)

> draw "transitioning process" on cardboard (shieko)

> DECO: carry all the exhibition materials in (shieko, mao)

*BRING & DO NOT FORGET*

・artwork data

・pens to draw on cardboard

・dress hanger

・dress racks to hang clothes

・clothing, shoes, etc for exhibition (I'll take some pics of my stuff as well and show them to you)

・many many laundry clips (for artwork)

・many many strings (for artwork)

・cardboard (already ready at CGS)

・handmade rainbow flag for exhibition (if you're gonna make, i'll help you to paint together)

【May 26 (mon)】

> Exhibition start!! (hopefully!!)

【May 30 (fri) @ 13:00~】

> Meeting (shieko, mao) -- go through shieko san's presentation material for June 4 (wed)

= following is about the exhibition and workshop =

<<Exhibition>>

Title: "Trans & Dace (transcendence): Trans* Issues Transcending 3 Continents"

Description: (shieko-san is working on it now)

>> either 1) trans issues in Malaysia or 2) art project conducted under API (trans issues in Malaysia, Philippine, Japan) -- shieko-san will decide soon

Period: May 27 (tue) - June 13 (fri)

Place: Break Area of Othmer Library Ground Floor, International Christian University

Artist: Shieko Reto (API fellow/ Researcher at CGS)

<<Workshop>>

Title: "Trans*mission: Sharing Session & Art Therapy Workshop"

Description: (will be coming up soon)

Time: June 4 (wed), 2014  // 15:10-17:00

Place:One of the classrooms at Honkan (will be finalized on May 14th)

Language: English (No simultaneous interpretation)

Fee: Free/ open for everybody

Program schedule: 

1) Sharing information (30 min presentation & 30 min Q&A) 

・shieko-san's introduction 

・about the situations of trans* as well as sexual minorities in Malaysia 

・about grassroots activism of trans* community and how shieko san has been involved  

・about shieko-san's project under API (why, where, how long) and what shieko-san found out up until now

2) Workshop

- Art Therapy workshop (about 30-40 min)

>> purpose: translating one's inner-self and learn how to express oneself through art

- drawing session for shieko-san's project (20-30 min)

>> draw pictures under the theme of "how do you feel about being LGBT in Japan"

Things to distribute

> "I AM YOU: TRANS ALLY" flier

> ZIN information flier

Materials to bring (mao)

> Big paper for art therapy workshop

> crayon, color pencil, pen, color pen, pen etc

> drawing form for shieko-san's project

Reservation for equipment for presentation (mao)

> mac converter (shieko-san will use her mac)

> microphone

> projector

additional notes

Yesterday, 30/3/14

Sunday Genmai san told me there was a workshop or conference by Sam Winter who shares his work and research. Sam is an associate professor from University of Hong Kong, Director to World Professional Association for Transgender Health and also a member of WHO, Working Group on Sexual Disorders and Sexual Health, Director for Transgender ASIA Centre.

During his presentation he showed some slides from Transgender Murder Monitoring Project where Mexcan has the highest casualty from hate crime. THe photo in the slide was just few months a go where the police is recovering a transwoman body from a lake. 

Turky is next after Mexico. Trans people face violence for who they are because they'r very visible in the public. 

Sam also show the increase of spreading of HIV in Asia where Transwomen are the highest 54% who's into sex work. 

The Philippines Supreme Court ruled that a family planning law is constitutional, allowing the government to provide reproductive health care services primarily to the country's poor despite strong opposition to the law from the Roman Catholic Church

Malaysia: Court to Rule on Transgender Rights

State religious department officials at times subject transgender women to physical or sexual violence while during arrests, groping their genitals or beating them. Although several transgender women have filed police reports after such abuse, police have not been willing to hold the religious department officials accountable for violating the law. Transgender women are often held in cells with men, where they are subjected to further sexual violence at the hands of wardens or fellow detainees.

Nisha Ayub of Justice for Sisters said the laws serve as an obstacle to transgender women seeking access to justice when they are victims of violence: “A lot of the trans community faces [violence], but a lot of them don’t want to report it, because they feel that just because they are trans people, therefore they’re not protected under the law.”

full article here:
http://www.hrw.org/node/125451

hirstorical date

Quite a hirstorical date to remember besides past May13 incident where the seed of racism been planted in the country.

(Bangkok, May 13, 2014) – Transgender women in Malaysia have filed a groundbreaking court case challenging a law that prohibits them from expressing their gender identity, Human Rights Watch said today. On May 22, 2014, the Putrajaya Court of Appeal is expected to hear a challenge to the constitutionality of the laws. 

celebrating diversity & existence

i've never dreamed that in my life before i get to attend these 2 very mind-blowing celebration of diversity and also our existence in 2 different country in Asia. thank you Nippon Foudation/Api

Both Sides Now-Dhillon Khosla

*Both Sides Now-Dhillon Khosla

Last week i return back this book back to CGS, cried a bit here and there. Us transwomen is another side of the same coin. What i like about this book is how he perfectly described many situations of being in gender dysphoria. Towards the end, i copied down some of my favourite parts in the book, that in a way describe what transwomen and transmen are going through their lives.

pg.290 - Energy (Dhillon was talking to a butch lesbian but her gender identity is female)

"As we continued talking i had the sense that i was talking with more of a male buddy than a woman. There was something clearly masculine in her energy and she spoke to me in a man-to-man' kind of way."

pg.291 - Rights/Condition

I was struck by her notion of what was 'All right' and i suddenly felt this strong urge to shake her and say, "What do you mean that's okay?

Don't you know you deserve better?" I was surprised by my own reaction.

pg.292 - Gender & culture

Were body image and cultural roles in extricably linked? Or wether they separate?

pg-298 - Sleepwalk

Will i ever be able to rest? "For as long as my mind knew that i wasn't finished yet, as long as there was more distance to travel, same part of me just couldn't let go and fully engage in life. I was afraid - that i would become complacent. One day i would find myself among the ranks of those who sleepwalked their way through life and justified their compromised existence with dull-eyed clichés like, "Hey as you get older, you learn to set your sights a little lower."

pg.308 - Not giving shit about other people say

"You're all reminded me of an anecdote about Albert Einstein. During his time, there were many who thought he was odd and they gossiped behind his back,  referring to him as unkempt and dirty and eccentric. One day, one of his colleagues came up to him and said, "The things that people are saying - doesn't it ever bother you? "and Einstein responded, No,- i don't live there."

pg.314 - Transwomen

Since this was their final surgery, the three had all been on hormones for years. But what stuck me as most extraordinary was just how ordinary they all actually were. And i came to understand why they hated the term 'Drag Queen" or "Transvestite". For those who fit under such terms were typically and exaggeration or caricature. But theses were women. ordinary women.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/408990.Both_Sides_Now
http://www.dhillonkhosla.com/page.php?page=98

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."