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‘#Occupy’ at Yellow Peril; Roger Shimomura at RIC

That time is the subject of Shimomura's show. Writing across the bottom of the prints tells of a friend from Seattle coming to visit, long lines at the common bathrooms, an uncle leaving the camp to go fight in the war. The depravations and injustices are striking to read, but don't come across powerfully via his a pared-down, bland, cartoony style. For example, Shimomura's drawing of an anonymous woman seated with a plate of food does not convey the alienation and disappointment in the text that accompanies it: "Grandma didn't like the food we were served in the mess hall." By generalizing in his drawing, Shimomura eliminates many of the specific details that would connect us with his memories and grab our hearts.

The potential for the series, though, comes across in a larger print, American Guardian. A soldier silhouetted behind a machine gun looks through binoculars down at the camp's uniform, tar-paper-covered barracks inside the barbed wire. Gold clouds drift across the scene in imitation of traditional Japanese woodcuts. We follow the soldier's gaze to the silhouette of a little boy riding a tricycle. You know what's going on without any supporting text and the image begins to convey the dark, sad absurdity of life in the camps.

Read Greg Cook's blog at gregcookland.com/journal.