“A painter, A very poor talker”: Affective experiences of trauma and coping mechanisms in Hisako Hibi’s internment artwork

Abstract

ABSTRACT This work explores the affective or felt experiences of trauma that artwork creates for audiences. The author analyzed 63 oil paintings from the Japanese American National Museum Hisako Hibi Oil Painting Collection to uncover themes of coping mechanisms within the collective race-based trauma of internment. The author concluded that the paintings evoke feelings of dissociation, aversion, and maternal disruption/continuity for viewers. The trauma conveyed and the emotions elicited from the paintings speak to the collective experience of Japanese American internees, Isseis (first-generation immigrants), and mothers, as well as the individual story of artist Hisako Hibi.