Inside the artist's studio: portrait of Pipo

He's short, he's bald, he has absolutely fabulous fashion sense and he can take a damn good picture. He is none other than Pipo, the super fantastic artist professor type person. This week, Design Director Daniel G. Romano - another super fantastic artist type person - was lucky enough to meet with the man that Oberlin fell in love with.

Daniel G. Romano: A lot of people on this campus simply call you "Pipo." Do you have a last name?

Pipo: I Don't use it for a lot of reasons. First of all I don't think I'm good enough to take on my last name, that is why I prefer "Pipo." A lot of times it's a problems because people just end up bastardizing my name. I think my sons are good enough for my last name, but I don't think that I am good enough for my last name.

DGR: How does it feel to know that not only does every student at this institution know your name but also wants to be in your class? How does it feel to be a wanted man?

Pipo: Well I think it is a curse, but at the same time I think regardless of who's going to be teaching this class I don't think it is so much me that they want to take classes with but it is about photography. I think everybody has the high hope of being able to be a great photographer. They want to learn to use the tools instead of having to have me as a teacher.

DGR: What that in mind, what turned you on to photography? Who and what were your major influences?

Pipo: I started out as a model in New York, then I went behind the cameras and started taking photographs of my friends. Eventually, not wanting to have myself portrayed by something I don't like, so I decided to take more control of the my images and how I was being represented in them.

DGR: Can you describe your first real body of work?

Pipo: My first body of work was just photographing friends, it was very stylized and influenced a lot by Man Ray. Then some high fashion work for Harper's Bazaar. Mainly I liked working with designer friends that I had or people I was hanging out with. That sort of grew into street photography, because I really wanted to learn, so I spent six months photographing four rolls a day to learn how to do street photography. It wasn't till I was in graduate school that I finally realized what part of my life story I wanted to deal with. I decided to do self-portraiture, and ever since then it has been self-portraiture with different context. Usually it has to do with racial, historical, and cultural constructs, but mostly it has to do with photography in context of colonialism. That's what it's about.

DGR: And what is the direction of your current body of work?

Pipo: It's really going back into the history of photography, and deconstructing what photography really meant. Photography as an invention to expand the European gaze upon Asia and how to subvert that. How to deal with colonialism. How to contextualize colonialism, but not just to describe it, but really try to subvert it. For instance, I think the last body of work I did was "Another Western." It was the re-staging of nineteenth century photographs with subjects being Asian cowboys, gunslingers and entertainers instead of the usual historical rendering of Asian as opium addicts, prostitutes, and servants.

That all led up to my work in Monetís Garden which is called "Another Expedition." That talks about having an Asian gaze onto European high culture. The first expedition I thought about was the Mongolian expedition to Europe which was terminated. I created this myth of having the second expedition where the scientist went to Europe to collect specimens in order to study the culture, and really all that is about stealing a culture, stealing earth, water and scientific specimens in order to study a culture.

That all lead up to me dealing with Asians as others during the nineteenth century, i.e. Asians as Siamese twins, you know very exotic, very freakish. They had this sort of power.

I think my work deals with my own story of me assimilating into the west. For me there is no such thing as assimilating - the act of being fully assimilated. For me there is only "assimilacra." That means I can talk, I can walk, and I can dress the same as someone who has been fully assimilated but because of my racial characteristics I can not be fully assimilated. Therefore my work is about assimilation. Assimilate situations. Assimilate the fact that I have been similated. I'm really interested in the transition from Eastern to Western culture. For instance I use the Opium poppy a lot in my work because I see it is an agent that goes between the East to the West a lot. What makes a person Vietnamese, and what makes a person American and what is the space that occupies the transition between the two for a person that is neither American nor Vietnamese?

DGR: Where have you been in your lifetime?

Pipo: I was raised in California, I went to school at Carlton College in Minneapolis and in the '80s I was in New York.

DGR: Well then could you compare NYC of the '80s to Ohio of the '90s?

Pipo: (After a very long pause) Wow. You can't compare the two.

DGR: If you found out that you had 24 hours to live, what would you do?

Pipo: I only have 24 hours to live?

DGR: Yes. Yes you do.

Pipo: If I only had 24 hours to live I would hang out with my family. My family is how I get my inspiration, and how get my support for my work. What is my family? You know, I consider my students and my friends as family too. Probably I would end up bringing my family up to this area [The Photo Dome area] and hang out, and make work with my students, and my family. Also to make sure the dome isn't burning down, or that it is clean before I leave.

DGR: What do you say to someone who is trying to get into one of your photo classes when you just don't have the space for them?

Pipo: I would take more but I only have ten enlargers. Maybe we will get more money so that I can make photo available to more students

DGR: Do you have any words of wisdom for future Oberlin photographers?

Pipo: Learn it from me so that you can be a lot better than I can be ever. My only wish that all my students can be so much better than I can be.

DGR: Any last words?

Pipo: Last words? Well I know that I have made a mistake in my life. My mistake is that I didn't come here as a student before. If I had gone to Oberlin for college I would have known a lot more.

Deep thoughts: Sagacious Pipo in a moment of inspiration. (photo by Areca Treon)