Hidden Mechanisms: An Illustrated Artist's Statement (p.3)

by Heidi Kumao

In several of the works, childhood is the site where one acquires knowledge about discipline and power. In Recital, the exchange between the parent and child dyad, symbolized by the chalkboard and pull-toy, describes the repetitive acts inherent in the acts of teaching and learning. As the hand on the chalkboard demands learning by rote and points out mistakes, the paralyzed pull-toy sits motionless below, receiving a lesson that goes beyond the subjects being taught. In Childhood Rituals: Consumption, a child wearing a dunce cap, or party hat, rapidly devours giant spoonfuls of food or information. Representing both forced-feeding and insatiable desire, the little caged child lives in an isolated world in which it consumes what it is given, seemingly without thinking. Through repetitive conditioning, the child in both of these tableaus learns the psychological condition of compliance.

The same act of acquiescence reappears in Adore in which a woman curtsies repeatedly for an implied viewer. In a cramped theatre-like space, three folding chairs face a small, portable movie screen, which sits on a table. From underneath one of the chairs, a cinematic device projects a sequence of two pale, female legs wearing black tap shoes curtseying on a red curtained stage. As a perpetual performance of "please," "thank you," and "you're welcome," this politely enacted show implies a psychic exchange of willing compliance for love, attention, and approval. Because this piece generates its images from underneath a chair, it also suggests the act of secret adoration from a distance. The implied spectator secretly confesses his hidden desires to the cinematic screen through a voyeuristic, circular viewing hole. While these works suggest a psychological state or space between two people, they also underscore the constant flux of relationships.