Artist Talk: Mari Katayama

In the photographic self-portraits of Mari Katayama, the artist’s body features prominently, surrounded by painstakingly arranged objects, both in intimate settings or set against vast landscapes. The recipient of the Grand Prize at Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi 2012, Katayama was born with various developmental challenges, and had both legs amputated at age nine and has since lived with prosthetics. Using her body as a living sculpture, Katayama photographs herself among intricately embroidered objects, hand-sewn mannequins and her prosthetic legs. Katayama’s photography has been exhibited at museums such as the Gallery J, Arts Maebashi and the Museum of Modern Art in Gunma, Traumaris Gallery in Tokyo and Kitchen Gallery in Paris, and has also featured in group exhibitions at the Metropolitan Art Museum and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo and La Criée in Marseille, amongst others.

In conjunction with her solo exhibition at the White Rainbow Gallery, Katayama will be delivering a talk on her artistic process, touching on how her physical difficulty has informed her work and influenced her body images, along with having a conversation with Simon Baker, director of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris.