Karen Sato
“ dappigara ”
2010Grand Prize
ARTIST STATEMENT
dappigara
I don't know what it is to "be myself." Every single day I do the same things, in the same places, and I grow older.
I feel like each time I do this, something important is scraped away.
Sometimes I get frightened when I think about what remains.
Self-portraits are usually photographs of yourself, but if I can't sense myself from a photograph of myself, that can't be called a self-portrait.
It may be a way to show that I existed, but it is too absurd.
So how can I prove myself? How can I communicate myself to myself?
I think the answer to this can be found in my mind.
"dappigara" is my self-portrait.
Entries form: Book, 279mm x 356mm, 30 pages, color printing paper
Selecting judge: Minoru Shimizu
The artist wrote "hikikomori (social withdrawal)" as the work's intention. I think this withdrawn sensitivity, this gloominess, is very raw in the pieces. I felt a sense of love and hate-especially hate-towards things that are recorded, whether they are photographs, videos or photocopies. In our society full of copies, there is a sense of despair in the insignificance of one's existence. For example, the artist took a photograph, and then made it one step cheaper by photocopying it. The emptiness of our society in which one cannot feel one's existence-. I felt them to be genuinely bleak photographs.
PROFILE
Karen Sato
| 2011 | New Cosmos of Photography 2011 “Memento mori” exhibition of new works by Karen Sato, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan |
| 2012 | “cage” exhibition of new works by Karen Sato, E&C gallery, Fukui, Japan New Cosmos of Photography 2012 “Memento mori” exhibition of new works by Karen Sato, sendai mediatheque, Sendai, Japan New Cosmos of Photography 2012 “Memento mori” exhibition of new works by Karen Sato, ARTCOURT gallery, Osaka, Japan |
| 2016 | “I” Kanzan Gallery, Tokyo, Japan |
Selected Group Exhibitions
| 2011 | The 3rd International Art Photography Festival IN FOCUS 2011, “internalized” exhibition, Vilnius Graphic Art Centre gallery, Vilnius, Republic of Lithuania |
| 2012 | “SHOWCASE#1 curated by minoru shimizu” exhibition, eNarts, Kyoto, Japan |
| 2013 | “SPACE CADET Actual Exhibition #2” TURNER GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan |
| 2014 | “Souzo Kaigan Inage” exhibition, Chiba Citizens's Gallery Inage, Chiba, Japan |
2010Grand Prize