{"title":"Mari Katayama","description":"\u003ch2\u003eMari Katayama – Art, Photography \u0026amp; Books\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMari Katayama is a Japanese multimedia artist whose practice brings together photography, self-portraiture, hand-sewn objects, and sculptural forms. This collection gathers books and works by Katayama available at Lokator100. Her work treats the body not as a fixed image but as a mutable social and material form — a site through which questions of identity, perception, and construction are staged.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eAbout the artist\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKatayama was born in 1987 in Saitama and raised in Gunma. She studied at Gunma Prefectural Women's University before completing her MFA at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2012. Her work has been presented at Tate Modern, the 58th Venice Biennale, and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP Paris). She received the Higashikawa Award in 2019 and the Kimura Ihei Award in 2020.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThemes, materials, and visual language\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKatayama's practice is built around the body as both subject and material. Photography functions less as documentation than as a constructed stage — each image is the result of deliberate arrangement, fabricated objects, and the artist's own presence as a sculptural element. The recurring use of hand-sewn forms and textile work places her within a tradition of object-making that intersects with, but is not reducible to, contemporary photography.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSelf-portrait as construction\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBody and object\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHand-sewn forms and soft sculpture\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePhotography as stage and arrangement\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIdentity, perception, and social projection\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMateriality, repetition, and transformation\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eBooks and publications\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKatayama's two major book publications are \u003ca href=\"\/products\/synthesis-mari-katayama\" title=\"Koop Synthesis van Mari Katayama bij Lokator100\"\u003eSynthesis - Mari Katayama\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003cem\u003eGIFT\u003c\/em\u003e. Both are considered primary entry points into her published work. \u003cem\u003eSynthesis\u003c\/em\u003e consolidates her photographic and sculptural practice in book form; \u003cem\u003eGIFT\u003c\/em\u003e extends that scope further. Descriptions and availability for individual titles are listed within this collection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWithin the Lokator100 catalogue\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis collection sits within Lokator100's broader selection of carefully chosen photobooks and artist publications. Katayama's work connects to the shop's ongoing focus on image-makers who operate at the intersection of photography and other disciplines. Related titles can be found in the \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/photography-photobooks\" title=\"Browse our curated photography and photobook collection\"\u003ePhotography\u003c\/a\u003e collection, which includes further artist books and publications from publishers such as \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/mack-books\" title=\"Explore titles published by MACK Books at Lokator100\"\u003eMACK Books\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"synthesis-mari-katayama","title":"Synthesis – Mari Katayama","description":"\u003ch2\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eSynthesis\u003c\/em\u003e — Mari Katayama\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSynthesis\u003c\/em\u003e is a large-format artist's book by \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/mari-katayama\" title=\"Browse all Mari Katayama titles at Lokator100\"\u003eMari Katayama\u003c\/a\u003e, published by SPBH Editions \/ MACK in September 2025. It brings together nine photographic series made between 2019 and 2025, tracing a period shaped by motherhood, a return to Gunma, and sustained work inside the artist's home studio. The book's central concerns are body, memory, and transformation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eAbout the book\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe nine series gathered in \u003cem\u003eSynthesis\u003c\/em\u003e — among them \u003cem\u003eTree of Life\u003c\/em\u003e — were produced in Katayama's home studio in Gunma over six years. The studio functions throughout as both a space of reflection and a controlled stage: Katayama places her body in relation to hand-sewn sculptures, threaded forms, paper collage, and constructed interiors. These are not casual self-portraits. Each image is a deliberate composition in which identity is assembled through repetition, material, gesture, and spatial arrangement.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat distinguishes the publication is its refusal to settle on a fixed image of the body. Katayama's practice consistently treats the body as something staged, remade, measured, dressed, doubled, and re-examined. In \u003cem\u003eSynthesis\u003c\/em\u003e, that logic becomes especially legible across the full span of the work: opposites are held in tension rather than resolved, and personal history is carried forward through transformation rather than closure. The result is materially dense and unusually controlled.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSynthesis\u003c\/em\u003e operates as both a photobook and an artist's book. The photographic series are sequenced with the precision of a constructed publication, and the objects Katayama makes — sewn, assembled, worn — are as integral to the images as the body itself. The book does not separate the craft from the image-making; the two are the same practice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublished by \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/mack-books\" title=\"Explore the full MACK Books catalogue at Lokator100\"\u003eMACK Books\u003c\/a\u003e under the SPBH Editions imprint — SPBH Editions became an imprint of MACK in January 2024.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor related titles, browse the \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/photography-photobooks\" title=\"Browse the photobooks collection at Lokator100\"\u003ePhotobooks\u003c\/a\u003e collection.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MACK Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52434372690266,"sku":"978-1-917651-11-0","price":45.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0946\/3359\/1130\/files\/synthesis-mari-katayama-cover.jpg?v=1778589669"}],"url":"https:\/\/lokator100.store\/collections\/mari-katayama.oembed","provider":"Lokator100","version":"1.0","type":"link"}