Title: Geiko
Type: photo project
Technique: model, make up, paper rise, eating baskets, Chinese lamps, fabrics, curtain ropes, Chinese shoes, Japanese katana, kendo helmet, various items
Year: 2008
With this work I wanted to explore the oriental elements present in Cyberpunk, especially if one thinks about the cinematic declination of the genre.
Geiko, a term synonymous with geisha, is not intended as a study of these figures but it is more a reference, a sound meant to evoke an atmosphere and to create an imaginary link to the Far East and Oriental culture.
For this reason I used elements belonging to this world - e.g. the katana and the kimono - mixed with everyday objects - chop-sticks, Japanese paper, lanterns - to develop a semantic synthesis that gave life to personas whose bodies - characterised by objects, writings and clothes - acquired another meaning and transformed the figure into language.
Taken individually, the bodies of the geiko seem to reveal an incompleteness, a loss of totality: hidden faces, arms that are missing or that are tied. Modified, reshaped, and made impervious to the passing of objective time, yet highly sensitive to subjective time, the bodies of geiko play on the dislocation of a recognizable cultural icon, a female stereotype widely exported and then resemantised.
As usual, also in this work I like to interact with the stereotype by distorting it in an instrumental way in order to convey my imagination and especially my vision of the future. The characters I create through make-up and collage flaunt bodies adorned with elaborate headdresses and dresses or surrounded by ropes: the reference is to the work of Nobuyoshi Araki but declined according to a Post-human sensibility.