Update
 
April 30, 2016, First Viewing of "At Play In Cannon Beach"
54 foot long panel painting permanently installed in a new cedar pergola
adjacent to White Bird Gallery
251 N Hemlock St., Cannon Beach, OR 97110

[email protected]

All of my work is conditioned by the cross-influences of the USA, Japan, and the international community, which I feel a part of through the many different kind of people I have come to know in New York and in the variety of faces and creatures I see everywhere I go in the city and beyond.
 
 
 
From the PRESS RELEASE FOR EXHIBITION AT 2B GALLERY , Budapest, 2007:

For her installation and performance in Oregon in 2005, Rumi Tsuda meticulously transformed store-bought Caucasian Barbie dolls into images of classic Japanese beauty with hand made silk kimono, tied hair, and faces made-up like those seen on Geisha or in Kabuki theatre. The performance, as described by Watt Childress in the local newspaper proceded:

"Packed into the gallery we stood transfixed as Tsuda made ritual use of sand, sounds, calligraphy, cloth flower petals, yarn, and dry pigment sprayed with water. ...step by step she put the materials down on paper spread across the gallery floor. Onlookers jumped when Tsuda raised up a piece of hand-painted driftwood and brought it down hard against a mirror, breaking both glass and wood.... Tsuda selected one of the altered figurines in a white kimono and set it face down against her collage. She then draped a purple cloth over her head and began a very passionate chant over the doll."

She has said of this work, "Barbie is from America. I clothe her in my Japanese designs and place her in my moon shrine. With a mirror I see myself but the image is too clear."

For 2B Gallery,, Tsuda has developed her cross-cultural feminine imagery with a new installation and performance created specifically for the exhibition.
 
 
Link to yourdocumentsplease.com catalog for travelling exhibition organized by Rumi Tsuda and Daniel Georges