Yanagi Miwa‘My Grandmothers’

Mar. 7—May. 10, 2009

• Mar. 7—May. 10, 2009
• Closed Monday (Tuesday if Monday is a national holiday)
• Admission：Adults￥800（640）／College Students￥700（560）／High School and Junior High School Students, Over 65 ￥600（480）

One of the objectives of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography is to introduce the work of leading Japanese photographers who are active on the international art scene, and in this, the third exhibition in the series, we are delighted to present ‘Yanagi Miwa: My Grandmothers’.
After completing a course at the Graduate School of Kyoto City University of Arts, Yanagi Miwa held her first solo exhibition in Kyoto in 1993, debuting with the highly commended, ‘Elevator Girls’, then going on to participate in numerous exhibitions both in Japan and abroad. Her work focuses on the image of women as depicted in nursery tales and the awareness of the problems faced by the individual within contemporary society; her ‘Darkness of Girlhood and Lightness of Aging’ exhibition (Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Marugame, 2004) and ‘The Incredible Tale of the Innocent Old Lady and the Heartless Young Girl’ (Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 2005), both being received with great critical acclaim. In recent years, she has continued to work actively, gaining international attention for her solo exhibitions in New York, Houston, etc. and having her work selected for the Japan Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale this year.
This exhibition will feature the complete ‘My Grandmothers’ series, that was first shown in 2000 and which she has continued to work on ever since. This series features young women depicted as they believe they will be in fifty years time, the backgrounds, clothing and even facial expressions all being determined after repeated discussion with her subjects, to create works in which time is condensed through the intermeshing of reality and imagination. This exhibition will include several new works that have never been shown before and we hope that you will enjoy this opportunity to communicate with a variety of different grandmothers.
We would like to finish by offering our sincerest gratitude to the artist, for her unstinting effort, all the companies and organizations that cooperated and supported us and to everybody else who contributed to make this exhibition possible.