Mari Katayama carries out her artistic activities on her two prosthetic legs. She was born with tibial hemimelia, a deficiency in which the major, larger leg bone is absent. As a result, both of her legs were amputated at age 9. Ever since, she has been expressing herself and her unique body’s connection with the surrounding world through her art pieces. With these works, she held her first solo exhibition entitled "you're mine."
Interview: Choosing High Heels with Amputated Legs / Artist, Mari KATAYAMA」
“you’re mine” 2015, http://www.shell-kashime.com/
In the last few years, the young Katayama has been actively widening the scope of her artistic works. In 2012, she won the Tokyo Marunouchi Grand Prize Art Award. In 2013, she was the youngest participant in the Aichi Triennale. That same year, she modeled in fashion shows and did art performances in France. In 2014, she appeared on TV shows and dramas, further expanding the domain of her artistic activities.
Along with her unevenly amputated legs, her left hand has only two fingers. It is “like a crab’s” as she herself put it. Up to this day, Katayama has continued to observe other people in order to bridge the gap between her “abnormal” body and a “normal” body. She has been expressing her observations and interpretations of people and society through the art of her self-portraits.
For two months, beginning December 17th, 2014, she held her first solo exhibition at the Traumaris Gallery in Ebisu. The exhibition represented the installation work “you’re mine,” from which its title was taken, and five more art series including her self-portraits.
Taking the center stage of this exhibition, “you’re mine” is an art installation that consists of a self-portrait, a plaster figure in her likeness, and a full-length mirror. This work represents the answer she found after continually gazing at the “abnormal” and the “normal,” and puts the dot on the Mari Katayama she has been up until now.
What feelings did she put into this work? Mari Katayama recalls the roots of her artworks and the sight she found beyond unceasingly tracing her own body. She talks about what the Mari Katayama from here on shall bring forth.
→Next Page：About her works until today and about self-portrait
