Las Vegas Art Examiner | June 2010

Hugging Quaranto goodbye, I headed down to Brett Wesley Gallery to see the exhibits What Lies Beneath and Snow White Revisited. Gallery Director, Victoria Hart, greeted me immediately, welcoming me into the dollhouse world of Barbie and Snow White.

Shot by photographer Jana Cruder What Lies Beneath features models dressed up like Malibu, Russian and Kenya Barbie. Hart says Jana got the idea after looking at editorials that celebrated Barbie's 50th birthday. Feeling no one got it quite right, Jana combed through the credits to find men had mostly shot the stories. So, Cruder picked up her camera, channeled Barbie, and created this series.

One of the photos called "Barbie Boxes" shows Malibu, Russian and Kenya Barbie framed in giant windows. To me they looked like superheroes ready to take on the world armed with beauty queen hair and red lipstick.

Just a few steps away from Barbie hung another American icon, Snow White in Snow White Revisited. The show, created by artist Yasuko, examines social issues in real-life settings with a series of juxtaposed images that illustrate psychological and social themes.

In "Wedding," the viewer is drawn to a woman dressed up like Snow White framed by cake toppers. Next to that image is a clip from the movie Snow White where the icon is being carried away by her prince. Below that is a picture of a Japanese wedding in black and white.

I could have stayed all night in the gallery dreaming about what it would be like to be Barbie or Snow White but decided I better push on and finish my evening at the Arts Factory.

Drifting from room to room, I got a look a look at inspiring collections, listened to poetry, and met artist Joseph Watson. His work was fun and satirical. You could literally see yourself as one of the characters in his paintings either standing in the street or riding on the bus.

The painting, "Dog Chart," showed examples of what different dog breeds would look like if they were mixed together. My favorite breed was Pug – Rottweiler, with its beefy body and pronounced jaw. Thinking of my own beefy Pug, I headed home, satisfied and excited to see everything all over again tonight at First Friday.

-Jenny Valdez

Visual Art Source | December 2009

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all,” goes the question an aging queen asks a magic mirror who, in the blunt fashion of a critic, tells her that there is a young upstart who’s about to push her off beauty’s pedestal. So begins the familiar story of “Snow White an the Seven Dwarfs,” one that has been associated with the Disney films since its inception in the ‘50s rather than the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale, one that immortal and perversely timeless. Yasuko has mined that timelessness and transferred Snow White into herself, a Japanese immigrant navigating American culture. Through printed collages combining Disney tropes, photographs of contemporary buildings and objects and text, the artist becomes Everywoman (especially among young immigrants) among many who have formed early fantasies about life in America and the reality of daily life hereabouts. “Cleaning” shows that, fantasies be damned, housework is still mostly women’s work, even if said women are princesses gone underground. “Apple” references the notorious poisoned apple on one hand, and the symbol’s significance in technology as well as advertising that promotes progress while solidifying the status quo. Throughout, Yasuko intersperses the face of a beautiful, somewhat bewildered or bemused looking model as her stand-in, her perfect features underscoring reality and fantasy as it’s presented in different guises to women worldwide: Youth is to be envied (or emulated), there’s a prince for every damsel in distress (“Wedding”) and yes, pretty young thing can make a bunch of short, sneezy, dopey and grumpy geezers do their bidding (“Wash Your Hands”). Amusing and thought provoking, this selection of ink prints on archival paper offers escape from the contradictions of daily life while letting one relish its absurdities (at Arin Contemporary Art, Laguna Beach, California).

- Daniella Walsh

Coast Magazine | January 2010

SNOW WHITE REVISITED

Growing up in post-war Japan, when the nation struggled to return to normalcy, artist Yasuko, at seven years old, saw a Japanese 1950s version of Snow White on black-and-white TV. She was mesmerized by what seemed like a “real” princess who had heart-wrenching trials mixed with humor, catchy tunes, a wicked step-mother, a handsome prince, and a happy ending. For the young child, the original Snow White is a white American, which she associated with abundance and happiness.
Today, as a seasoned Laguna Beach artist, Yasuko revisits the magical princess in an exhibit at the new Arin Contemporary Art by letting us peek into her life then and see what it might be like if Snow White were propelled to modern day America as a mature Japanese woman. Yasuko narrates the fairytale - Snow White Revisited, 2008 - in sets of three scenes. The left side is a frame from the original 1938 Technicolor Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, juxtaposed with a related frame from the black-and-white Japanese film of the ‘50s. The third, and largest in each set, is where Yasuko composes her own photogenic comments on contemporary women. Snow White engages in activities women perform, including homemaking, business, community, social, and political responsibilities.
Now living in our multicultural western society, the mythology of Snow White is transformed form a child’s fantasy to an adult’s reality. For Yasuko, Snow White may still wear her identifiable puffy-sleeved princess dress and red hair bow, but she has finally become a real flesh-and-blood woman.