Iona Rozeal Brown
From Provisions
About the Artist
"For Iona Rozeal Brown black culture without the blackness represents a strange new breed. She addresses specifically the Japanese version of Hip Hop, called anything from Nip-Hop to J-Hop. Through the traditional style of the Japanese woodblock print, Ukiyo-E, Brown’s work plays with the ideas of blackface and the the idea of transformative cultural gestures. In either case the result is hybrid of culture made up of equal parts Japanese and Hip Hop Black Culture"
–from Say it LOUD! Nikki S. Lee and Iona Rozeal Brown: A Hip-Hop Converstaion
"part of the romantic idea is that we are all mirror images of each other. Beyond the ganguro phenomenon, there are many connections between these two cultures; on a good day, the relationship is reciprocal, the dark-faced ganguro may not be popular anymore, but the acquisition of hip-hop accoutrements, both visual and verbal, is vogue, fly, fresh...you get the picture."
–from A3 Black on Both Sides artists' statement
More About Japanese Appropriation of Blackness
Geishas Go Gangster, American Prospect Online Artist iona rozeal brown’s first solo Washington, D.C., show at the G Fine Art Gallery draws almost entirely on her hybrid fusion of 17th- and 18th-century Japanese prints with modern-day American hip-hop culture.
Raw Like Sushi - Hip Hop Culture in Japan, by Vanessa Altman-Siegel Since its inception in the early 70's, rap music has become the most prominent genre of music in America today. Hip hop culture, comprised of rap music, graffiti art, break dancing, ‘b-boy' fashion and a rebellious attitude, has blown from it's cradle in New York City across the globe. Hip hop culture is cool now, even in Japan. But how does the chaos of black life in the ghettos translate in a highly regulated society where racial conflict and urban poverty barely exist?
