Spirituality is a critical element in East Asian civilizations. Religions such as Daoism and Buddhism allowed women to exercise subjectivity in the material world, where the misogynous Neo-Confucian patriarchy held social control. It was especially true in the realm of art, as religious art was one of the few genres wherein women artists thrived. This capstone analyzes two of these women artists: Kimsooja and Mariko Mori, whose works build on religion’s uniquely empowering quality for women and explore the complex questions about spirituality and gender in contemporary global art.

The introduction of Feminist movements in East Asian societies in the twentieth century provided women with theoretical means of changing the patriarchal social structure. In Japan, women were oppressed in the workplace, but the women’s liberation movement called uman ribu, or ribu, also known as Japan’s second wave of feminism, was founded. This movement emerged in postwar Japan, in the economic boom of the 1960s and early 1970s.[1] In Korea, women were mostly confined to the home and required to learn Confucian virtues at a young age. They were denied the opportunity to participate in events or activities outside their homes until the end of Japanese colonization in 1945, which brought national liberation, and liberation for Korean women. A Western democratic system developed in Korea that gave women greater freedom and opportunities. A method I use to conduct my research and an important branch of scholarship is that of the historical and sociohistorical feminism in Korea and Japan in the 20^th century. A large portion of scholarship on this subject is based on the comparison of Eastern versus Western feminism, such as Jooeun Lee’s “Sooja Kim’s Wrapping Cloth: The Aesthetics of Paradox,” and Jieun Rhee’s “From Goddess to Cyborg: Mariko Mori and Lee Bul.”[2] Both examples, among others, establish that the Japanese or Korean perspectives towards gender are at odds with the Western understanding of feminism. With a thorough scholarly review, I ask: How does this relationship between feminism and East Asian societies manifest itself in the contemporary context? How have women artists retooled religious subjects to envision their perception of modern womanhood?

This capstone project examines these questions through two comparative case studies:  the Japanese artist Mariko Mori’s Pure Land, part of her Esoteric Cosmos series from 1996 to 1998, and the Korean artist Kimsooja’s Needle Woman, a set of video works from 1999 to 2001. I investigate how the two works deliver the artists’ feminist ideologies by considering the following questions: How does religion enhance or alter their view on East Asian women’s role? How do these two works explore the relationships between self, object, and earth established centuries ago? What does Mariko Mori’s self-deification inform us of her self-identity in Pure Land? Similarly, how does Kimsooja’s performance of Needle Woman reflect her spirituality and identity as a woman artist in Korean contemporary art?

My capstone project contains two sections. In both, I address my thesis questions, their significance, and the approaches I take to analyze the works of Mariko Mori and Kimsooja. Besides using a method based on historical and sociohistorical feminism from 20^th century East Asia, the theory of role-playing and its relation to feminist art is another side of scholarship important to my research. Scholar SoonJin Lee explores this theory in relation to Mariko Mori’s work in their dissertation from 2014 titled “The Art of Artists’ Personae.” This dissertation and its method are comparable to feminist and conceptual artist Cindy Sherman’s work and theory in role-playing.[3] Issues of identity and role-playing are prevalent in both artists’ work. Lee argues that, like Cindy Sherman, Mori relies on physical transformation, such as her transformation into a cyborg or deity, to comment on racial construction, gender, and overall identity.[4] Art critics have created a relationship between Mori and Sherman because of Mori’s cyborgs, which clearly descend from Sherman.[5] However, Mori creates her own virtual world that can be seen as an updated Cindy Sherman.[6] Kimsooja lacks this direct connection to scholarship surrounding Sherman, however, her role-playing theme is tangible. Sherman, exploring self-portraiture in the postmodern era, explored various female tropes and roles that were popularized in mass media. Where Sherman didn’t depict any coherent form of herself or her personal identity, neither did Kimsooja or Mariko Mori.[7] Throughout this thesis and extensive visual analysis, the reader will begin to understand the connection these artists have to role-playing as a method to feminist and spiritual art.

The two main sections of this study are dedicated to Mariko Mori and Kimsooja, respectively. Section One begins with the biography of Mori before delving into her series of photo collages Esoteric Cosmos. The series includes four collages, and the last one, “Pure Land,” was later turned into an installation video project. In this section, I examine Mori’s chosen medium and the significance of photo-collage and installation art in the context of her career. I include a visual analysis of Pure Land and the rest of the Esoteric Cosmos series, drawing similarities and differences from collage to collage. Each edition embodies a natural element and explores a different facet of the title, “Esoteric Cosmos.” I examine how feminist ideas and self-image are inserted into each collage, finishing with the video rendition of Pure Landand the final Nirvana image that it encapsulates. I identify Pure Land as a self-portrait and question the significance of self-portraiture, self-deification, and Mori’s self-identity as a Japanese female artist. Her feminist identity and spirituality are the most significant concerns of this capstone. What are the technological implications of feminist identity and spirituality? This section also explores the past and present of Japanese culture and how Mori’s Japanese identity fits into it.

Section Two concerns Kimsooja, a female artist from Korea. Born ten years apart, the age gap between Mori and Kimsooja is an interesting component of my research. Although Kimsooja’s work comes first, I focus on Mori for my first section because it is more outwardly connected to the ideas of spirituality. “Pure Land” is a great starting place for my conversation about the mixing of spirituality and feminism and lays the groundwork for the theme of this capstone. I explore how the generational and national differences resulted in their distinct approaches to their art. Kimsooja created the performance piece Needle Woman over three years, beginning in 1999 and ending in 2001. It is a series of eight video installations that she created in eight cities worldwide. After a thorough visual analysis of Kimsooja’s performance and video installation, I examine its purpose and the connections that the performance has to the artist’s spiritual and feminist ideologies. Most importantly, I compare Needle Women to Mariko Mori’s Esoteric Cosmos to discuss their contemporary expression of Buddhist spirituality, their positions in a global setting, their generational differences, and the distinct local elements of Korea and Japan.