QUEEN GIDREA FAMILY ARMOR, 2011,

Screen-Printed Soft Sculpture

I create intricate plush sculptural forms made from screen-printed satin. I began experimenting with this method while creating the feminized robot regalia worn in ‘Queen Gidrea’s Family Armor.’ 

For ‘Queen Gidrea’s Family Armor’ I created a set of feminized body armor inspired by anime robots and samurai regalia.  I designed my armor with luxurious black satin screen prints sewn into plush, angular forms. In this performance piece, shot during a residency at a farm in Grinnell, Iowa I was interested in radically inserting my Asian femme body into the context of the midwest cornfield. a place mostly vacant of racial diversity and Asian communities.



I began working under the name “Queen Gidrea” over 10 years ago as a versatile avatar and feminized version of the villainous three-headed golden dragon “King Ghidorah” from the Godzilla motion pictures. My mother worked as a set builder for the Godzilla films in Tokyo during the 1960s. In a way, I felt called to embody monstrosity, both to follow a matrilineal tradition and to offer a fantastical and parodic counter narrative to the often fetishized depictions of mixed race Asian women. As Queen Gidrea, I am like an endless array of heroes and villains in my own graphic novel. For my photo performance work, I write a specific background story or ‘lore’ about each piece, placing it within the character world of Queen Gidrea.

Photography by Cory Ploessel