Artist Talk: Katayama Mari and Tawada Yuki
Please join us at The Photographer’s Gallery in London for a conversation between artists Katayama Mari and Tawada Yuki moderated by curator Lena Fritsch, celebrating the opening of Japanese Women Photographers: From the 1950s to Now. The discussion will explore themes of identity, embodiment, transformation and self-representation, giving insight into the possibilities of image-making today.
Japanese Women Photographers: From the 1950s to Now offers a much-needed counterpoint, complement, and challenge to historical precedents and the established canon—an electrifying expansion of our understanding of Japanese photographic history, but also of photo history writ large. This restorative survey presents a wide range of photographic approaches brought to bear on the experiences and perspectives of women on their lives and on Japanese society, and showcases their creativity through key images, installation-based works, video, and photobooks.
To learn more about this event and purchase tickets, see here.
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Image: Kawauchi Rinko, The Eyes, the Ears, 2002–4; from I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now (Aperture, 2024). © Kawauchi Rinko
Dr. Lena Fritsch is an award-winning curator and writer. Fritsch has taught at the University of Oxford and University of London, and lectures regularly at museums. She holds a PhD in Art History from Bonn University, Germany and also studied at Keio University, Tokyo.
Katayama Mari graduated with a master’s degree from the Department of Intermedia Art at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2012. Her photographic work is predominantly exhibited as prints—some large-scale, nearly life-size, and some presented in ornate frames resplendent with seashells and rhinestones. Through her installations, Katayama projects her own world, surrounded by embroidered and stuffed objects of her creation.
Tawada Yuki uses photography as well as sculpture and video in her work. She attended Tōhoku University, where she majored in biochemistry. As part of her university and graduate studies, she studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she fell in love with photography. Through mesmerising immersive installations, she translates the deep spirituality of her work into physical experiences for viewers. Tawada currently teaches photography and video at Kyoto University of the Arts.
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