Shane Sakata is a visual artist whose work is primarily photography based. She uses irony, humor and respectful satire to focus on the banal, the vernacular, the overlooked and rarely examined. Through her work Shane actively questions the underlying paradoxes and constructed realities that confront us daily. By doing so the collective emotional and physical impact upon our quality of life and on the wider communities we call home are brought into focus.
The very infrastructure of our lives and our societal values are changing at a pace that is hard to fathom. Discerning fact from fiction in both the news and our online social spaces can feel exhausting. Each day we are confronted with an overwhelming barrage of advertising messages and other visual stimuli, yet it is a challenge to truly ‘see’ all of this as we go about our daily lives.
Shane’s strongest work invites a nuanced analysis of the ambiguity between intention and reality, presentation and representation and engages thoughtful viewers in that exploration.
In her current project, GREETINGS from The STATE of ALOHA she takes you on a tour of Hawai’i by placing her contemporary images of the tourism landscape in conversation with vintage postcards and ephemera. Humorous, often insightful and sometimes cringeworthy, the result exposes the facade of the tourism industry in Hawaiʻi and the prevalence of a colonial tourist gaze ¬and how both have remained remarkably unchanged over time. Previous projects critically examine consumer fantasy and consumerism (Enchanting Propaganda) and the built environment (No Outlet).
Learn more about where my work has been exhibited and my background by clicking through to my Curriculum Vitae.