Wednesday, May 10, 2006

collection collective: 50s asian figures

my brother is back in seattle.
he left a little note
for us on the window sill:
.
he is so silly.

monday i received
2 lovely
the great monday give-away™
postcards!
one from f.pea

and
another from
dacia ray


you can view
the collection
of postcards
as it grows
here.

dacia ray is so sweet!
she included
a little present:

beautiful placemats!

thank you so so much
dacia!
it made my day.

f.pea
also made my day
by posting
all my stuff
in her attic

on flickr
to help me
with the
great monday give-away™.
you can check out
what may be
coming soon
to the give-away
and
leave comment
on things
you like.
also you can
thank f pea
for being
so supportive
in helping
me get rid
of things!
ms. pea,
you rock.

i have been
taking a break
from self-portrait tuesday
these past few weeks.
i was a little burnt out
on pictures of me.
i may rejoin next week
but i did get my photos
together for
the collection collective
this group
is steadily growing!
please do post
your pictures there
and tell us
a little about
your collections.
i think it is
so cool to see
what people collect
and
if it is any inspiriation
to you...
if i know
what you like
i can keep
an eye out
for things
to add to your collections
on
my trips to the village.

my collection
for today
is 1950s asian
figurines.


some time ago
i did a big project
for my global
feminism class
on
asian women in film.
i was fascinated
(and appalled)
on how asain women
were often
represented in film
as being
submissive sex objects.
i wanted to deconstruct
how this stereotype
came about.
at the same time
i also started to
acquire a taste
for 50s modern design.
i came across a plaster
wall hanging
(pictured in the collection)
and it inspired me
to connect
the 1950s perspective on women
and post WW2 US/Asia
relations...
in that process
i started collecting
50s representation of
asian women.
i have hung on to them
for far too long
so they may end up in
the great monday give=away
in time.
all these figures were
constructed from plaster
and hand painted.
they were very common
in the 1950s
when oriental decor
became stylish.
many of these
figurines
did not last
because they are plaster
and easily break
and chip.
i can atest to this
because i chipped
the bookends
today
while arranging
them to photograph.
*sigh*

i have several
wall-hangings,
a lamp,
and bookends.

i use to have more
but i must have
broke them
or given them away.
probably when
i briefly dated
a gal from china
who was a bit
creeped out
by all my asian
figurines!
grub hates them
so they are all in my lab:


what do you collect?
please join
the collection collective
and show us your collections!
you can also
post a comment
so we can check your blog!

xo

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are very welcome! Your Asian collection is super cool. :)

Tracykins said...

There I was - reading along and wondering why I've never seen any of these Asian figures in the old apt. A-ha - they are all at your lab! It seems you keep a lot of things at your lab. I smell an outing!

Anonymous said...

Love the note! Fabulous.

Beta said...

I second the interest in a lab field trip. I had no idea such figurines could look so similar - like they're all part of the same concept. *going to take a look at the flickr attic additions*

Anonymous said...

wowee - a tarepanda camera (in the attic photos)?? i LOVE tarepanda... and in camera form?!? i'd love to know when you're giving that away!!

Anonymous said...

on the subject of your collections...
this passage from a jose saramago novel i was reading jumped out at me:

"there are people like senhor jose who fill their time by collecting, and they do so out of something that we might call metaphysical angst, perhaps because they cannot bear the idea of chaos being the one ruler of the universe, which is why, using their limited powers and with no divine help, they attempt to impose some order on the world, and for a short while they manage it, but only as long as they are there to defend their collection, because when the day comes when it must be dispersed,and that day always comes, either with their death or when the collector grows weary, everything goes back to its beginnings, everything returns to chaos."