MARI KATAYAMA, BYSTANDER, 2016
“Self-portrait with Hand-sewn objects.
On the trilogy series “shadow puppet,” “bystander” and “on the way home.”
In “shadow puppet,” I likened the body, which changes shapes, sizes and roles, to a shadow puppet. The experience of visiting Naoshima frequently for “bystander” had a strong influence on this. On Naoshima, there is a Bunraku puppet theatre company made up of only women called Onna-bunraku. I made a series entitled “bystander,” following my meeting with the company’s team of Kuroko (puppeteers who wear black clothes on stage, including their face coverings.) Kuroko’s hands become the dolls’ legs and spines, which gives dolls lifelike movements. “We as Kuroko must erase our existence on stage,” they however said. They perform on stage but have to act like bystanders at the same time. In “bystander,” I photographed puppeteers’ hands and used them in my object works. It was the first time for me to feature other people’s bodies in my work, which allowed me to experience the difficulty and power of “living together.” When photographing “on the way home,” I was pregnant. Previously, I had only been able to consider within the span of my own life, which is only about 100 years. But when I thought about my daughter’s life, it became more real as the sense of time extended into the past and the future. It felt that history in textbooks became my personal matter. I did a shoot in my hometown, overlaying this sense of time on the river.” - Mari Katayama