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Japanese artist Fumino Hora explores the notion of a "second self" with her "Doppelganger" exhibit at Pittsburgh Filmmakers in Oakland.

A native of Japan who lived in Hong Kong for 13 years before moving to Pittsburgh in October 2006 with her family, she says being Japanese in a thoroughly Chinese society for so long almost made her lose her sense of self.

"I almost lost my identity from being Japanese," Hora recalls. "At the same time, I started to imagine that I could exist anywhere."

Now stateside, Hora firmly embraces her Japanese culture, while exploring other cultures, including the one in which she currently finds herself living in. It's a theme that is at the core of the artist's work. This notion of duality, that one can exist on different levels, or in different ways at once.

Hence, in the gallery, Hora can be seen in several self-portraits, each time dressed in a traditional Chinese silk dress known as a "cheong sam." Her long, black locks in a bun, she looks every bit the proper Chinese lady. But here, with images fading in and out on various substrates, from traditional Chinese bark paper to thin scrims of organza, she strikes a ghost-like pose. As if a chimera, her presence in these forms is the perfect stand-in for a "doppelganger," a German term which is literally transcribed as "double goer" and means "second self."

In various cultures and traditions, there are similar stories describing this phenomenon. And for the most part, the stories describe the ghostly double of a living person, or someone who is behaving like another person altogether. They also describe the experience of catching a glimpse of oneself in one's peripheral vision. A doppelganger can appear as a sign or an omen, and can even perform an action in advance on one's behalf. "This other self is unpredictable and uncontrollable, and is a spirit that is bound by neither time nor space," Hora says.

Looking at Hora's interpretation of the theme, one cannot deny an overall spooky feeling her works convey. For example, in the center of the gallery, six large scrims of organza hang from the ceiling, each with an image of the artist in ghostly black and white, almost as ghosts appearing in a vintage horror film.

This installation, titled "Doppelganger 2," is surrounded by 10 documentary photographs of an installation Hora created in an abandoned shopping mall in Hong Kong in 2005. Titled "Harbinger," the installation included several small plaster figures the artist sculpted that represent women at various stages in life, from childhood to old age.

Like the artist herself, who in almost every self-portrait on display is wearing the Chinese dress, each of the figures is sculpted as if wearing a cheong sam, but their faces are purely Japanese, being inspired by Japanese dolls in the artist's own collection.

In each of the photographs, the figure is curiously arranged in a simple white room. The viewer is encouraged to follow along with the images. From image to image, these little cherub-like figures interact not only with the space but with a few inclusions, such as a dead dragonfly and the artist's clothing, which just so happens to be the same cheong sam Hora is wearing in all the other pieces on display, as well as her silk shoes.

"When I started making dolls with plaster, I referred to two items from Japanese folklore -- Dousojin and Jizo," Hora says.

Dousojin is a name for centuries-old Japanese folk deities found along roads and borders in the countryside. They reside in stone markers found at village boundaries, in mountain passes and along country byways. These deities are associated with roads and travel, and abstract the passage of evil spirits. They also administer the border between this world and the next world. They are meant to protect villages and travelers, as well as travelers from this world to the next.

Jizo, on the other hand, is another beloved divinity in Japan. They are Bodhisattva, or heroic-minded figures, who work to ease the suffering and shorten the sentence of those serving time in hell. Jizo can appear in many forms to alleviate suffering and is popularly known as the guardian of dead children -- those who died young or before birth.

"Dousojin is from the Shinto line, (and) Jizo is from the Buddhism line, but I do not want to go into the religious side too much," Hora says in regard to the small figures, each no more than a foot high.

Four of the dolls, each handcrafted in plaster by the artist, are in this exhibition, neatly tucked in an alcove. They create an overwhelming sense of comfort in an otherwise slightly unnerving installation of objects that is as much about exploring a sense of the second self as it is about creating a certain mood.

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