The Bizarro World Of Fuco Ueda

The women in Fuco Ueda’s work are, more often than not, in great peril. Sometimes they appear on the cusp of disaster; though many times they are square in the midst of one. Inhabiting the blank, surreal deserts of a Dali painting, we find them caught up in a great calamity. Alternatively we find them, as we do in her series “The School”, in familiar locales, though seemingly they are prisoners, of someone else or each other. “The School”, as evidenced by the images below, remains my favorite. It is a place so familiar (despite being decidedly Japanese, with it’s shoe cabinets) and yet it occupies a Purgatorial universe, something I can imagine floating in a sea of nothingness. The danger here is more personal. It is a violence between themselves; punishments meted out according to rules only understood by those involved. It may be that aspect of her oeuvre that so appeals to me. Every piece seems to send me into flights of fancy, trying to discern the events preceding and succeeding them.

Posted by Ross Rosenberg on July 6th, 2010
Filed under Art, Faboo, Gender, Sexuality

4 Responses to “The Bizarro World Of Fuco Ueda”

  1. R. Says:
    July 7th, 2010 at 7:15 am

    That’s some beautiful stuff.

  2. La Môme Néant Says:
    July 8th, 2010 at 12:16 am

    Thanks, now I have one more japanese visual artist in my collection! Do you know Shichinohe Masaru??

  3. Angeliska Says:
    July 8th, 2010 at 12:27 pm

    I love these. So eerie. I like the cute/cruel schoolgirls, animals and discomfiting humiliations! Ah, the perils of childhood!

  4. Stephanie Chin Says:
    March 16th, 2011 at 1:18 pm

    Hi there,

    Would anyone know where I can purchase a Fuco Ueda painting? I contacted the email address on Fuco’s website and the gallery that represents her, but haven’t heard back. I’m hoping to buy one for my boyfriend as a present, and he is a huge fan!!

    I hope to hear from you soon.

    With warm regards,
    Stephanie Chin