Visual Kei/Androgyne, Portraits in Glass

This latest series of eleven new pieces in glass explores the visual images from the fashion and music world in contemporary Japan. Each piece is different and part of a process of pushing my limits in the use of the medium. Each piece was difficult and contains successes and failures. These images are androgynous and are not meant to be viewed as male or female, it is just fashion. My interest in modern Japanese aesthetics and youth culture continues to grow and inspires my work.

Visual Kei embodies the spirit of the Kabukimono, ‘those who deviate’. By the text-book definition it is a noun which means “a fashion scene heavy on make-up and elaborate hairstyles, used highly among Japanese rock bands and musicians”. Visual kei has its roots in the fashion industry of Japan and shows a movement among musicians looking to stand-out using different, dramatic, and over-the-top attire. It is an individual joining of music and looks to create a memorable band style. The characters are literally “visual” and “system” or “group”. As in Kabuki theater where female roles are played by men, most Visual Kei bands have at least one member who is dressed in ultra feminine style. Visual Kei is not just a fashion or music genre, but a form of art, and a complete lifestyle.

Androgyne is neither male nor female, though the dictionary defines it as hermaphrodite, which is both sexes, it does not have to be gender related at all. We are conditioned to categorize people as to one or the other and then confine them within that box. Boys wear blue and girls wear pink and so there the separation of humans through fashion begins. Fashion is merely a matter of choosing adornment for the body and is the costume one wares in the public theater, it is the statement we make as to who we are in the world. Fashion can express a sexual preference but we are more than just breeders attempting to attract the opposite sex. Fashion is constantly changing and what was unacceptable 50 years is common place now. Women wear pants and have adapted many styles previously considered male. Fashion can liberate and all revolutions begin with a change in fashion.

The revolution that the world needs is an end to patriarchy and the separation of people based on gender. It begins with how we look at and categorize people solely by gender oriented fashion. Visual Kei is breaking down sociopolitical barriers with fashion.

New Works by Michael Miro