Two enegetic artists, AUTO MOAI, IZUMI SHIOKAWA collaborating with Alice in Wonderland

This year, Disney’s Alice in Wonderland celebrates seventy years since its North American debut. Two Japanese artists discuss their history with the movie.

Alice from two perspectives

By now, everyone knows the story of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865). One day, Alice spots a clothed, white rabbit rushing past her, and driven by curiosity, she follows the rabbit into a hole. She then finds herself in a strange world where she experiences all kinds of humorous, nonsensical adventures. Walt Disney conceived of an animated adaptation in 1930 but did not achieve his dream until 1951.
This year, Disney’s animated classic is turning seventy. To mark the occasion, Uniqlo has produced a UT collection featuring Alice, the Cheshire Cat, and other characters from the movie, as reinterpreted by two exciting artists: Auto Moai and Izumi Shiokawa.

Alice, removed of all the irrational and unnatural elements

Some of Moai’s works from 2020. Her humans never have faces (although her nonhumans do), giving her work an odd tranquility despite the busy compositions.

AUTO MOAI uses faceless individuals to portray the invisible, unspoken connections that tie people to each other. Her works suggest there is no one thing that can accurately represent our existence and that as faceless beings, we can be anyone we want to be. Moai depicts her Alice in scenes that scared her as a child but are removed of elements she finds irrational or unnatural. “Of all the Disney movies we had at home, Alice in Wonderland was the only one I never understood,” she says. “So I watched it over and over—but just the beginning. The scene in which Alice chases the rabbit into a hole and falls for a long time still sticks with me.

The discomfort we feel towards the outside world as we grow up

Shiokawa produces illustrations that reflect her interest in people. She says unless she is interested in a subject, she cannot pour her heart into the work. “After watching Alice in Wonderland, I began seeing faces in pansies and imagining that the hole in the tree in our yard was a tunnel leading to another world,” she says. “I began to think there was more to the world than what I could see.”
Her UT designs reflect this idea of the world being full of mysteries. “I created parallels between the confusion Alice feels and the discomfort we feel towards the outside world—a natural part of the growing-up process.”

Shiokawa’s Alice and Cheshire Cat (left) are faithful to the movie, humorous, and instantly memorable.

Both artists produced designs that reflect their childhood experiences with Alice. The resulting T-shirts can be enjoyed by children as old as Alice and adults who grew up with Alice.

©Disney