Rebirth ― Recent Work by Mariko Mori

Contemporary artist Mariko Mori (b. 1967) has transformed herself many times since her memorable debut onto the international art scene in the mid-1990s. Over the past two decades, Mori has made a significant shift in the focus of her work, moving away from self-obsessive motifs and performance pieces to a diametrically opposite approach of self-effacement. Her own image has disappeared from her Pop-oriented work, and her interest now inclines toward the prehistoric world in which everything existed in an amorphous state without text, religion, nation, or division between humankind and nature.

Accompanying a major solo exhibition at Japan Society Gallery in New York, this fascinating book features over 35 immersive installations, sculptures, drawings (including many unpublished works), and videos produced by the artist between 2003 and 2012. It presents not only Mori’s artistic evolution during the last decade, but also defines her current work relating to rebirth in an age of endangered environment and a lost connection between man and nature.

Miwako Tezuka is director of Japan Society Gallery. Brett Littman is executive director of The Drawing Center, New York. Takayo Iida is chief curator of Aomori Museum of Art in Japan.