On Tuesday, November 17, 2020, we will open the exhibition "Alien Child" by Mai Ito.
Mai Ito is a photographer born in Hakodate and currently living in Sapporo, Japan. she started photography in earnest in 2016 when she enrolled in the photography course at Kyoto University of Art and Design (now Kyoto University of Art and Design), Department of Art Liberal Arts, Faculty of Distance Learning, and has been showing her work since 2018. This will be her first solo exhibition.
"Alien Child" is a self-portrait work with the motif of "me" as an urban dweller and "me" in society.
A well-known work created with a similar intention is American photographer Lee Friedlander's "Self Portrait," but Ito has created a work that is based on Friedlander's work but has a different feel.
The differences between the two works are not only the black-and-white and color images, but also the relationship between the artist and society, as well as the subject itself, which comes from the difference in the artist's attributes (country of birth, time period, and gender). As for his motivation for creating these works, Ito seeks the origin in his childhood experiences.
When I was in elementary school, I felt a discrepancy between my memories and the memories of those around me. At the time, I was called an "alien child" by my classmates, which implied that I was a strange child." (From the artist's statement)
Starting from a sense of discomfort between himself and his surroundings, Ito chose photography as a way to examine his own relationship with the community that surrounds him.
A shadow of oneself falling on the street or a self-portrait in a show window is an image that unites "I" and "society," but at the same time it is nothing more than a photographic illusion. What is the relationship between "I" and "society"? Ito's works will give you an opportunity to think about the universal theme of the individual and society.
Kenji Takazawa (photo critic and director of IG Photo Gallery) quoted from gallery homepage
■ session (of a legislature)
Tuesday, November 17 - Saturday, December 5, 2020
Hours: 12:00 - 20:00 (until 18:00 on the last day)
Closed: Sunday, Monday, Holidays
■ Talk Session (no audience)
Saturday, November 21, 18:00 -
Mai Ito & Kenji Takazawa (Photography Critic, Director of IG Photo Gallery)
It will be distributed on You Tube.
■ Access
104-0061
3F Tatsunaka Building, 3-13-17 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Get off at Higashi-ginza Station on Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line or Toei Asakusa Line
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