22 Established 1961 Wednesday, November 14, 2018 Lifestyle Features Comic artist draws on history for tales of politically powerful women feminist manga-style artist says she themes from horror, romance and same-sex will use characters based on an relationships to comedy and pornography, AEgyptian pharaoh and a Chinese but female empowerment is rarely tackled. “It empress to bring more female empowerment isn’t unusual for women to be making manga, to the male-dominated world of comic books. but it is unusual to have the theme,” said Paul Queenie Chan is working on a series of non- Gravett, an expert and who has written books fiction biographies aimed at children called and curated international manga exhibitions. “Women Who Were Kings”, which will be “The women’s position in Japanese society rendered in manga, a comic book genre that hasn’t had the big push of feminism that we’ve originated in Japan. “I’m doing a series of seen in many other countries.” biographies on a bunch of queens from all Manga-style artists outside of Japan are over the world, and from many different cul- also rare, as the industry is dominated glob- tures, who achieved political power on parity ally by male-dominated comics produced by with what we expect from kings - hence the US publishers like Marvel and DC. As a title,” said Chan. child, Chan used to read pirated manga The first completed story focused on comics from newsstands in Hong Kong, Hatshepsut, a female Egyptian pharaoh, and where she was born, and returned to the the next will be on Wu Zetian, the first and medium as a teenager in Australia. Chan pur- only female Chinese empress, she said by posefully puts powerful female leads in her phone from her home in Sydney, Australia. comics, and her first published work, “The Manga developed its modern meaning - to Dreaming”, contained nearly all female char- describe a whole genre of Japanese animated acters. “In terms of projecting women as lack of female representation in board- Manga-style artist Queenie art - at the beginning of the 1900s when powerful - there are many different kinds of rooms or politics, it is important for peo- Chan digitally drawing a pic- artists in Japan were influenced by imports of power,” she said. ple to have representations of women ture of Red Riding Hood at political comic strips from the United States “One kind of power that women are fre- who can fill that role, Chan told the her desk in Sydney, and Britain. quently depicted of lacking - because there Thomson Reuters Foundation. “You can’t Australia. — Reuters Modern manga grew in popularity in just aren’t any representations of that in pop- be what you can’t see. I’m just letting Japan after World War Two and then spread ular media - is political, economic and military people know that these things exist and overseas, with millions of copies of magazines power.” Chan has also published a three- have for a long time.”— Reuters sold each year, pulling in about $3.8 billion in book series called “Fable Kingdom”, which is 2017, according to the Research Institute for a fairytale-inspired story with a powerful Publications. The genre is afforded unrivalled female lead. freedom in Japan and covers a variety of “In our society when we talk about the Manga-style art created by Australian comic artist Queenie Chan. Warhol in New York: A fresh experience for audiences old and new is Marilyn Monroe paintings and oversize becoming a brand himself. Spanning three floors, Warhol in constant creative motion, hungry for Hsoup cans are cultural icons, but in an exhi- “Andy Warhol-From A to B and Back Again” will experience-and reminds visitors that behind his bition opening Monday, New York’s present the silver-haired artist’s career as a aesthetics is a distinctly political artist. “The Whitney Museum hopes to paint a new, more whole, from his early advertising illustrations to themes that preoccupied Warhol-mass media, complex picture of Andy Warhol. These days, few his abstract explorations. celebrity culture, entertainment and politics-these dare to tackle the king of pop art: he has already And although the exhibition shows off his love shape our life even more directly than they did been the subject of hundreds of exhibitions and of vibrant, repetitive screen printing, it also pres- during his lifetime, making his work not only more retrospectives. But under the guidance of chief ents Warhol as far from a one-trick pony. Even if prescient but more relevant,” Weinberg said. curator Donna De Salvo-who worked with Warhol that style was key to his success, his films, collabo- At the center of it all are concepts of power and before his death in 1987 — the modern and con- ration with graffiti prodigy Jean-Michel Basquiat, representation: a reflection built on Warhol’s expe- temporary art museum is doing just that. De Salvo and his journey into the abstract-such as his epic riences in advertising during the 1950s. “Warhol is believes America’s last Warhol retrospective — in 1978 series “Shadows”-all act as proof otherwise. especially an artist of our time and I would argue 1989 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art- It’s a multidimensional experience of a multidimen- even perhaps for all time, especially in this selfie ”changed much of our thinking about Warhol but sional artist: a designer, painter, photographer, generation where everybody is the star of their also left much unanswered.” videographer, producer and magazine editor-not own photograph and movie,” Weinberg said. He Now the Whitney, located on the banks of the to mention curator of his own exhibitions. sees the overarching message as one of “a more Hudson River in the city’s Meatpacking District, complex and arguably more powerful Warhol than hopes to seduce both experts and newcomers- Distinctly political previously understood.” After the exhibit closes in ”no easy task,” according to director Adam A significant part of the exhibition-which New York on March 31, it will head in May to San Weinberg. From Campbell soups to Coca-Cola, boasts over 300 works, from 100 institutions and Francisco, and then to Chicago from October 2019 Andrew Warhola-to use his birth name-played collectors-is dedicated entirely to video, a medium to January 2020. — AFP with the icons of his time, while tirelessly docu- Warhol used to create documentaries, experimen- A woman looks at paintings from the “Flower” series against a backdrop of “Cow menting his own life and work, to the point of tal films and even commercials. It portrays a Wallpaper” (1966) by late US artist Andy Warhol.—AFP Photos A woman takes a photo of “Campbell’s Soup Cans” (1962) A man films the painting “Ethel Scull 36 Times” (1963) by People look at “Mao” (1972) by late US artist Andy Warhol. A man reads an explanation during a press preview of the by late US artist Andy Warhol. late US artist Andy Warhol. exhibition “Andy Warhol - From A to B and Back Again”..