Saeborg: Pigpen
What do you think ‘Pigpen’ says about the human form and identity?
Hello. I’m Saeborg. I am so grateful to have this chance to present my work to this year’s Middlesbrough Art Week.
As an artist I produce my own latex outfits, developing performances in which I myself wear them.
I believe that which we wear becomes an extension of our skin; with this second skin in mind, I develop an excessively deformed, extended body.
I use latex materials because of their strong adhesion to the body, a fact that allows them to synchronize nicely with various suits.
Also, because latex is artificial and interchangeability, I believe it is capable of overcoming various constructs such as sex and age.
And, the name SAEBORG originates as a portmanteau of my real name, Saeko, and cyborg. The term cyborg sounds strong upon first impression.
However, it is in fact a heavily distorted body superimposed with the self, created when what was originally possessed has been stripped away and those lost aspects become supplemented with something else.
How has the Tokyo nightlife scene influenced your practice?
When I was 20 years old, I started attending a fetish event called Department‐H while in college.
This monthly event has been held in Tokyo for over 30 years, and focuses on drag queens.
I have always been involved as a staff member.
This is where I started my career.
Most of my works have been shown here, and have been invited to museums and festivals in Japan and abroad.
Can you introduce your artwork ‘Pigpen’?
Next, I will introduce of my livestock series. I began creating the livestock series. I created the cow character first, then the sheep, the farmer woman, the chicken, and the pig. All of these are female domestic animals that have been fashioned into something like toys to fulfill their roles.
In series like Slaughterhouse and Pigpen, performances involved these characters acting out the roles they were assigned at birth in an artificial landscape of latex.
The cow is milked, the sheep is shorn, the hen lays eggs, the pig is slaughtered, and the farmer woman strips. In birthing and nursing piglets, the image of a sow, as an animal under control within an artificial environment also reflects gender issues.Lately we have added a portion to the end of the performance where the audience can dance together with the characters to create a carnivalesque space where they can be free of stigmas.
As a theme more subtle than the violence of "control and slaughter," the work depicts the boundaries between human and animal, and the politics of "emotion" as issues included within biopolitics.
As Saeborg and alongside Saeborg’s domestic animal alter egos, I want to create a world that reflects the ways human beings continue to be reborn through the design of life both in the sense of living beings and in the sense of how we live, and then perform within that world.
Come find out at Middlesbrough Art Week!