If God is dead, he’s surely rolling in his grave. Momo Okabe’s Bible, in both stature and spirit will not fit into your bedside table, although its alluring gold foil stamping and crimson suede cover will persuade you to keep it close. Juxtaposing images of underground Tokyo nightlife and the destruction wrought by the tsunami in Miyagi, and India between 2008 and 2014 Bible is a testament to the unwavering complexity of Momo Okabe’s everyday life with her lovers and friends. Alongside their pursuance of a genuine identity and sense of belonging, Okabe unfolds the “sad, yet beautiful scenery that they could perceive after overcoming the long and difficult struggle out from their traumatic past.” The sincerity and depth of Okabe’s work unwinds a sweetness within the tension of collective alienation; a window into a kaleidoscopic heart.
Bible is published by Session Press as a part of an ongoing, earnest mission to acquaint Japanese artists to an international audience. This is Okabe’s second US monograph published by Session Press following her unique artist book Dildo, an incredibly labored small edition in 2013. Okabe has been highly acclaimed by Nobuyoshi Araki at New Cosmos of Photography in 1999 and Masafumi Sanai at Epson Color Image in 2009 as well as by many other prestigious competitions in Japan. It is difficult, however, to position Okabe’s work into the norm of contemporary Japanese photography often associated with its perfection in composition and quiet meditation with subjects. Outside of the mainstream photo community, Okabe has pioneered her own electric yet sensitive color pallet to convey her overflowing emotions onto her work. It’s the kind of color that reminds me of what wandering around a desert would look like; the purples your eyes find after you’ve stared at the sun, the reds that hover over hot sand, and the depths of blues and greens that are only remembered through your imagination.
Since I first finished Bible it continued to swim around my head and churn up a poignant realizations of all how so few things are our own that we can really talk about. Take our designated terms — a mother, a father, a family — words that describe what we already know as feeling above all. The language in Bible — of a boy, a girl — struck this same cord as a visceral dichotomy, headlining what photography handles that words cannot. Okabe has brought a new breed of personification forward to a Japanese subculture long deserving of a platform. Her pulse between landscape and body imagery is not for the faint-of-heart, Okabe’s intimate access to gender identity (both pre and postoperative) is as urgent as it is courageous. Her rhythm continues to kick up the sediment of my mind once settled in the overtly intellectualized practice so prevalent in today’s contemporary photography scene, and begins to reposition critical perspectives towards compassion, intimacy, and camaraderie. Momo Okabe is enlightened over the weight of the history and tradition that stands before her, and keeps dear a why to live that endures almost any how.
Betsy Clifton is a book designer and distribution manager at Dashwood Books in New York, NY. She has contributed to numerous Dashwood publications over the past three years, most recently with artists Jason Polan, Stefan Marx, and Ari Marcopoulos. She received her BFA from the School of Visual Arts and is currently an M.Arch candidate at the University of California, Berkeley.
BOOK INFO:
Title: BIBLE
Artist: Momo Okabe
Design: Momo Okabe
Text: Ko Kosugi
Translation: Daniel Gonzalez
Publisher: Session Press
Date: 2014
Edition: 300, SIGNED, regular edition
Edition: 20, with an archival color C print SIGNED, NUMBERED by Artist
Edition: 20, with an archival color C print SIGNED, NUMBERED by Artist
Size:
Binding/printing/weight/page: hardcover, off-set color printing, 95 color images in 122 pages, 7 pounds.
ARTIST INFO:
Momo Okabe
Japanese, b. 1981
Momo Okabe was born in Tokyo in 1981 and received her B.F.A. in photography from Nihon University of Art in 2004. Her work has been nominated by many prestigious competitions in Japan including:
-Special Award “The 8th Exhibition of New Cosmos of Photography selected Nobuyoshi Araki “, P3 art and environment, Tokyo, 1999.
-Fine prize for” the 19th 3.3㎡ Exhibition”, Guardian Garden Tokyo, 2002.
-Excellent Work Prize “Color Imaging Contest of EPSON”, Tokyo International Forum, 2004.
-Fine work prize “The 30th Exhibition of New Cosmos of Photography ”, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 2007.
-Special Jury Prize , “Color Imaging Contest of EPSON selected by Masafumi Sanai” EPSON, Tokyo, Japan, 2009.
-Selected for Yokohama Photo Festival Exhibition, Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse, 2010.
-Selected for Tokyo Portfolio Review Exhibition, NADiff A/P/A/R/T,Tokyo, 2010.
-“DILDO” (session press, 2014) selected for 2013 PHOTOEYE BEST PHOTOBOOK by Hisako Motoo.
Publication:
dildo
Artbeat publsiher, Tokyo, 2010, 100 ltd edition
UNSEEN/TSUMAMI (with Kokey Kanno)
Dashwood Books, NY, 2012, 200 ltd edition
DILDO
Session Press, NY, 2013, 55 ltd edition
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