When a lecturer told Aiko Robinson her art was \u201ctoo safe\u201d she responded with pornography. More than a decade later, the Christchurch-born and Perth-based artist talks to Kim Knight about her latest exhibition. <\/p>\n
Aiko Robinson has, by her own admission, a \u201cvery dodgy\u201d internet search history.<\/p>\n
\n She watches porn.
\n And not even the high-end variety.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m like a 14-year-old boy. I haven\u2019t actually paid for any pornography sites, so I\u2019m not getting very quality stuff …\u201d<\/p>\n
She takes the sometimes crude and confronting and looks for moments she can redefine.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite often the offensive stuff that I don\u2019t like, but I find moments within these works, these videos, that I find beautiful. Or I try to make something that feels really confronting and crude, beautiful, in my own view.\u201d<\/p>\n
Art critics and collectors love it. Instagram? Not so much.<\/p>\n
Robinson\u2019s highly detailed watercolour and gouache paintings draw on the Japanese ukiyo-e tradition of shunga \u2013 a form of pornography, or erotica, from the 17th-19th century Edo period.<\/p>\n
At an upcoming show with Auckland\u2019s Gow Langsford, her newest works will sell for more than $10,000 apiece. But, back in March, the artist\u2019s professional Instagram account was permanently deleted.<\/p>\n
Robinson lost more than a decade of posts, 26,000 followers and, crucially, a platform for sharing her art outside traditional gallery walls.<\/p>\n
It was not, she admits, an entirely unexpected outcome.<\/p>\n
Warnings that she was breaching community guidelines had steadily increased over the preceding year. She suspects that while the social media platform had historically reacted to human complaints, it was now using artificial intelligence (AI) to determine which posts to take down.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy understanding was that it made allowances for things like fine art and things that weren\u2019t created digitally … and that, you know, maybe I was pushing it with genitalia, but maybe some breast was okay?\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson says as her online audience had grown, so had the allure of the platform. In an era that requires artists to self-promote, it was a powerful tool.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what was happening was the more graphic the work, the more quickly it would be taken down. So then I was trying to censor work. It was painful. Cropping it in certain ways. At this point, what am I doing? You feel that urgency to continue posting, so you continue that momentum, continue that engagement. It can lure you into that sort of pattern. But the things I was posting were just censored versions of my work \u2013 and they were still getting taken down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The end came in stages. An age restriction, a block on new followers and, finally, news the account would be deleted.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you never, ever, in that whole process, talk to anyone in person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson, 33, was born and raised in Christchurch. Her mother, Miwa, is from Osaka, Japan, and her father, Tim, is a New Zealander. She attended St Margaret\u2019s College, but in 2011 decided to move north for tertiary study.<\/p>\n
At the University of Auckland\u2019s Elam School of Fine Arts, Robinson drew on her heritage and began exploring ukiyo-e \u2013 traditional Japanese woodblock prints.<\/p>\n
\u201cImogen Taylor was one of the academic staff. She just straight up told me they were too cute, too safe. And I was like, \u2018ooh, I\u2019ll give you not cute and not safe\u2019. I went to the library and learned about the subcategory shunga. Initially, it was for shock value.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later that same year, the British Museum held a major shunga exhibition. Then, in 2015, Japan mounted its first large-scale exhibition of a genre once gifted to newlyweds and brothel customers but, in modern times, largely hidden away.<\/p>\n
Aiko Robinson began making shunga-inspired art at Auckland University’s Elam School of Fine Arts in reaction to criticism she was playing it “too safe”. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile: \u201cI\u2019d gone from that initial shock factor to discovering that it\u2019s really about beautiful works celebrating love and intimacy. Mutual pleasure, equality between lovers. In this current climate, where we can easily access online pornography, and a lot of it is quite problematic, I felt like this was quite an important message.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an artist\u2019s statement, Robinson writes: \u201cThe desire to have sex is not only normal but something wonderful and to celebrate. The curiosity to look at sexual material is human and healthy … I want to provide a platform for people to talk about sex in an open and positive environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, on a Zoom call from Perth, she says that\u2019s a conversation she\u2019s found particularly interesting since she became a mother.<\/p>\n
She recounts her experience speaking to other mothers about the exact age they would prefer their children \u2013 and especially their daughters \u2013 to first encounter sex.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a very arbitrary number. Where does that come from? And why, specifically, your daughter and not your son?\u2019 There\u2019s a part of me that wants to talk about emotional and physical readiness and about being safe and knowing to respect your body and others\u2019 … I think it\u2019s all about having these conversations and being open, and trusting that people can make their own decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shunga translates to \u201cspring pictures\u201d. Robinson notes that in the fine art world, sex is often legitimised or justified via an association with fertility.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m like, \u2018Can we also talk about women\u2019s pleasure?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIf, for women, pornography or erotica felt hard to access, or was something they shied away from, I wanted my work to be something that was approachable to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson has previously placed copulating figures outdoors or in front of open curtains. Metaphors, she has said, for openness. Figures and body parts are depicted simply, against highly detailed backgrounds that echo fabrics from her mother\u2019s extensive kimono collection and the ceramics and carved furniture of her Chinese Malaysian in-laws.<\/p>\n
Look closely, however, and you might see the mundanity of a tissue box. The men will always be wearing condoms.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had some pretty stupid comments on my social media … quite a lot of judgment … all these people saying, \u2018Why are they wearing condoms?\u2019 Do I have to do Sex 101 with you? This is encouraging safe sex. We don\u2019t often see it in pornography, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
Cropped detail from Aiko Robinson’s “Sweet mandarins fill me with another hunger”. The Christchurch-born, Perth-based artist is exhibiting at Gow Langsford’s Auckland city gallery from August 12 to September 12.<\/p>\n
Online, via a new age-restricted account, Robinson asks those who don\u2019t enjoy her art to at least respect it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuppressing sexual feelings can be really harmful, often resulting in violent sexual fantasies and unrealistic and deluded ideas of sex,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpeaking openly about such issues can be really important in your understanding of how to relate to your romantic partner in a truly intimate, pleasurable and respectful way. The fact of the matter is that sex is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson says one of the most empowering reactions to her work was a Japanese Government-funded scholarship to Tokyo University of the Arts, where she gained a master\u2019s in printmaking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really transparent. I said I wanted to go over there and learn about shunga … it just felt so encouraging that I was actually accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n
On her second night in Japan, at a social event for Kiwis and Australians, she met Adrian, the medical registrar who became her husband. The couple have lived in Perth since 2021 and their daughter, Yuzuki, turned 2 on the day of this interview.<\/p>\n
Robinson says she\u2019s \u201cslightly frazzled\u201d after putting together a cake for daycare.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can draw, but I can\u2019t make cakes … it\u2019s just a chocolate sponge with some cream cheese icing and raspberries. Very rustic. Ideally, I would have quite liked to have done a Bluey-themed cake because she\u2019s obsessed. Quite frankly, I\u2019m a bit obsessed too!\u201d<\/p>\n
Motherhood has, she thinks, changed the way she works.<\/p>\n
Seven works will feature in the Gow Langsford show. They took a year to make, after a maternity leave year away from the studio.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to be like this,\u201d she says, raising both hands and miming an uninterrupted tunnel focus where everything was a mistake and every mistake had to be fixed immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019d make things worse. I\u2019d panic, or just not have enough time to breathe … balancing it with motherhood worked for me, because it\u2019s not about making rash decisions. It\u2019s just taking the space you need to return to it with fresh eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow my life is dictated by my daughter\u2019s schedule. I thought that would be trouble. If anything, it\u2019s given me a new perspective. I\u2019ve got a newfound passion and joy, because the time I do get to spend on it is quite precious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aiko Robinson, My brush cannot begin to paint you a picture of my feelings, August 12-September 12, Gow Langsford, Auckland city gallery.<\/p>\n
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