Bringing to the fore her own body as a chiasma of different configurations, Katayama’s photographs constantly rearticulate the perception of the singular existence of the artist and of the human body. The self-portraits show the artist in a variety of domestic and private situations among intricately embroidered objects, and accompanied by prosthetic legs of various kinds. Some of the latter are functional, others are designed to refashion the artist’s body.
Katayama interrogates the viewers by confronting them with staged and mundane scenes, in the public space and in intimate scenarios, in which fixed social and cultural norms of able-bodiedness are exposed to be challenged and redefined. Expanding the freedom of choice for the disabled, Katayama’s “High heel project” provides amputees with customized prosthetic high-heel shoes to be used on stage while performing as a singer, model or keynote speaker. Using her body as the site where representations of diversity and identity are inscribed, Katayama explores the tensions between her lived bodily experiences and normative expectations of a functional human body.
The exhibition at the Pori Art Museum is Katayama’s first solo show in Finland, and an intense and concentrated introduction to her photographic oeuvre.
Curated by Luigi Fassi and Anni Venäläinen
Mari Katayama
b. 1987 Gunma, Japan
Katayama’s major exhibitions include, “leave-taking” (Akio Nagasawa Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2021), “Home Again” (Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France, 2021), “58th Venice Biennale 2019” (Giardini and Arsenale, Venice, Italy), “Broken Heart” (White Rainbow, London, 2019), “Photographs of Innocence and of Experience-Contemporary Japanese Photography vol.14” (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, 2017), “On the way home” (The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, 2017), “Roppongi Crossing – My body, your voice” (Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2016), “Aichi Triennale 2013” (Nayabashi, Aichi), etc. Public collections include Collection Antoine de Galbert (Paris, France), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, Japan), Arts Maebashi (Gunma, Japan) and Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (Tokyo, Japan). She received the Encouraging Prize of Gunma Biennale for Young Artists in 2005, Grand Prix of Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi in 2012, Higashikawa Award for The New Photographer category in 2019 and Kimura Ihei Award in 2020. Her major publications include “Mother River Homing” (Akio Nagasawa Publishing, 2021) and “GIFT” (United Vagabonds, 2019).
