Yokohama Triennale Spotlight: Paul Jacoulet

Curator Inti Guerrero introduces prints by Paul Jacoulet that combine 18th‑century Ukiyo‑e woodblock techniques with European‑Orientalist conventions, on view in Episōdo 4: Institute for Tropical and Galactical Studies, Guerrero’s contribution to the 2020 Yokohama Triennale.

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Yokohama Triennale Spotlight Paul Jacoulet

Left to right: Paul Jacoulet, Basilio, Young Boy of Saipan Holding Seashells, Marianas (Present-day Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, U.S. territory) (1934); The Song of the Waves, Ponape, East Carolines_ (Present-day Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia) (1936). From the collection of Yokohama Museum of Art. Courtesy Yokohama Museum of Art.

By Inti Guerrero – 4 September 2020, Yokohama

Left to right: Paul Jacoulet, The Awakening, Saipan, Marianas (present-day Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. territory) (1937); A Downpour at Metalanim, Ponape, East Carolines (present-day Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia) (1935). From the collection of Yokohama Museum of Art. Courtesy Yokohama Museum of Art.

Jacoulet’s intricate figures combine techniques of 18th-century Ukiyo-e woodblock printmaking with European-Orientalist artistic conventions and exoticism, as well as an accompanying anthropological gaze. In some instances, the sexualisation of the subjects being portrayed is evident and the eroticisation, particularly of the male body, is recurring.

Left to right: Paul Jacoulet, __The Nautilus Shell, Yap (present-day Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia) (1958); Tattooed Woman of Falalop, West Carolines (present-day Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia), from ‘The Shell Series’ (1935). From the collection of Yokohama Museum of Art. Courtesy Yokohama Museum of Art.

The Chamorro people—the largest indigenous population of the Mariana Islands (present-day Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands)—are depicted in some of Jacoulet’s prints.

Left to right: Paul Jacoulet, The Betel Nut Boy, Yap (present-day Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia) (1940); Yap Beauty and Orchids, West Carolines (present-day Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia) (1934). Fromthe collection of Yokohama Museum of Art. Courtesy Yokohama Museum of Art.

Having mixed ancestry and influences from over 200 years of Spanish colonisation, both German colonists (1899–1914) and Japanese colonists (1914–1945) treated the Chamorro as ‘racially superior’ and ‘civilised’ in comparison to the other indigenous people of other parts of Micronesia, such as the darker-skinned Chuukese, Yapese, Palauan, Pohnpeian, or Marshallese, all of whom were incorrectly grouped together and referred to as ‘Kanaka’ by Japanese authorities.—[O]

^{As part of the 2020 Yokohama Triennale, curated by Raqs Media Collective, Inti Guerrero was invited to curate Episōdo 4, which unravels locked histories within the collection of the Yokohama Museum of Art, and discovers the vestiges of colonial patriarchal violence in the Asia Pacific region. Artists from YMA collection include: Miyako Ishiuchi, Paul Jacoulet, Atsuko Tanaka, and Wilhelm Von Gloeden. Guest artists include: Mao Ishikawa, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner (with Dan Lin), Eisa Jocson, Cristina Lucas and Anting-Anting artifactsfrom the Philippines.}

^{Research and editorial support: Greg Dvorak, Professor, Waseda University}

Main image: Left to right: Paul Jacoulet, Basilio, Young Boy of Saipan Holding Seashells, Marianas (Present-day Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, U.S. territory) (1934); The Song of the Waves, Ponape, East Carolines_ (Present-day Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia) (1936). From the collection of Yokohama Museum of Art. Courtesy Yokohama Museum of Art.