The Photography and Sculptures of Mari Katayama
Mari Katayama’s photography uses her own body as one of her materials. Born with a rare congenital disorder, the artist had her legs amputated as a child, and at times, her sculptural work emulates the features of her body that the condition caused. The resulting work explores identity, anxiety, and other topics.
“Her belief is that tracing herself connects with other people and her everyday life can be also connected with the society and the world, just like the patchwork made with threads and a needle by stitching borders,” a statement says. “In addition to her art creation, Katayama leads ‘High heel project’ in which she wore customized high-heeled shoes specially made for prosthesis to perform on stage as a singer, model, or keynote speaker. The motto of this project is to take advantage of any means including art and disabled body if it helps to expand the ‘freedom of choice’ for those in desperate need.”
Stockholm-based artist Joakim Ojanen crafts pastel-colored characters that seem to be varying ages at the same time, while playing with perspective. He accomplishes this in both 2D and 3D, using oil portraits and stoneware sculptures to bring his visions to life. Above, one towering character is given even stranger depth in bronze.
We might not think much of sheets of paper, something we see every day, strung together in our notebooks and journals. German sculptor Angela Glajcar sees something light and delicate, with the power to take us to another place. She has exhibited her paper-produced works and suspended sculptures all over the world, with her latest installation on view at Heitsch Gallery in Munich, Germany. Titled "Weiss Ist Das Neue Schwarz" ("White is the new black"), her new work plays with opposites- solid blocks of light paper that float freely in the gallery space.
The work of Gerwyn Davies blends photography and sculpture, utilizing everyday objects to obscure the body and create surreal vignettes. In his "Alien" series, the artist's use of simplistic, geometric shapes offer an interplay between light and shadows against diverse backdrops. Elsewhere, in summer-themed series like “Heatwave” and "Sunny Boys," he manipulates inflatables to evoke sun-soaked decadence.
Antony Crossfield, an artist based in London, manipulates his photographs to create new ways of looking at our natural forms. Series like “Second Skin” take the outer shell of the human body and pushes it outside of the boundaries of superficiality. It’s in these exercises that Crossfield aims to “to present the body not as a protective envelope that defines and unifies our limits, but as an organ of physical and psychical interchange between bodies.”