If you could be anyone, anyone at all, who would you be?

Manga Dreams speaks to powerful themes of identity, media, and self-perception through the realms of cyberculture and digital technology. It features studio photographs of Asian youth dressed in their own original manga-inspired costumes and posing as fictional characters of their own creation. This unique and unforgettable exhibition combines exquisitely crafted photographs with digital post-production techniques to create backgrounds, graphics and even calligraphy, transporting each sitter into a universe of their own imagination.

Originating in Japan, manga means 'cartoon', a form of visual expression which like its cousin, anime, bridges cyberculture and contemporary art. The sitters in Manga Dreams are non-professionals whom the artists identified on the street and invited into their studio, providing hair and costume stylists, while encouraging them to develop their own motivation and backstory. The characters they developed are pure inventions–heroes and villains of their own devising, not based on real manga characters.

Manga Dreams raises numerous educational themes including identity and self-expression, media representations, fantasy and cosplay, gendered identity, and digital postproduction.

WORKS
35 photographs

DIMENSIONS
From approx. 38 x 25 inches to approx. 78 x 52 inches.

SPACE REQUIREMENTS
275 linear feet (84 linear meters)

INQUIRIES
exhibitions@curatorial.org | 626.577.0044 

FEE
Please inquire.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Anderson & Low | Jonathan Anderson and Edwin Low have been collaborating as “Anderson & Low” since 1990. Their work includes portraiture, architectural studies, abstract images, reportage, nudes, and landscape and is noted for attention to concept, form, lighting, and printing. Their work is exhibited world-wide, residing in many public and private collections including: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, National Portrait Galleries of both the UK and Australia, Museum of Fine Art, Houston, High Museum of Art, Baltimore Art Museum, Atlanta, National Gallery of Australia, Akron Museum, The National Gallery of Australia, the US Olympic Center, the Southeast Photography Museum, Florida, and Museet Fotokunst, Denmark.