Self-portrait with Hand-sewn objects is a project by Japanese multimedia artist Mari Katayama, developed from the late 2000s onward mainly in her room, as well as her home studio (from 2019), in Gunma Prefecture where she stages self-portraits alongside hand-sewn forms.
Across sub-series such as white legs (2009), I have child's feet (2011), you're mine (2014), and bystander (2016), the artist questions the self and the complex relationship with the surrounding environment and society. The work returns to the societal boundaries her practice repeatedly tests: what is called "correct," "natural," or "artificial," and who gets to decide. Instead of a single storyline, the project accumulates like an inventory: for her, making hand-sewn objects, photographs, and installations is a way to ascertain the multilayered society we live in, our roles within it, and the landscapes around us.
Many photographs read as tableaux. Sometimes echoing art-historical figures, Katayama often places herself within a carefully arranged interior filled with textiles, paintings, collages, mirrors, and small, glittering details. As is especially evident in the leave-taking series, Katayama uses long exposures and insists on “pressing the shutter button always myself,” rendering her moving figure faint and blurring boundaries between what is worn, what is made, and what is seen.
Katayama spends months sewing, beading, and embroidering dolls and other forms, often printing her photographs onto fabric first and building them into three-dimensional pieces. Beginning at a very early age, sewing with needle and thread evolved into a central element of her artistic practice.
This project reflects her growing international profile, including participation in the 58th Venice Biennale (2019), acquisitions by institutions such as Tate Modern and the Mori Art Museum, and the 45th Kimura Ihei Award (2020).
