Performer and Participant

The photographs in the Renais sense series were originally shot as Polaroids. Ulay described these early self-portraits as ‘Auto-Polaroids’, spontaneous actions made specifically for the camera which allowed him to experiment with his idea of ‘the self’ as complex and permanently under construction. He said, ‘Taking Polaroids was a performative act for me: I performed in front of the camera. These were intimate actions, carried out in the absence of a live audience, ephemeral in nature, yet arrested in time.’

This work is comprised of eight plaster panels. Nasaka Yūko placed each one onto a mechanical turntable, inspired by the potter’s wheel. As it rotated, she carved patterns into the plaster using a palette knife. She then applied a layer of dark-blue silver lacquer to the surface. Nasaka was part of the second generation of Gutai artists who experimented with technology. Much of their work used industrial materials and techniques, referencing Japan’s rapid economic growth.

I’m wearing little high heels and I have child’s feet feature Katayama posed in her bedroom in Gunma, Japan. She is surrounded by personal possessions – including clothing, fabrics and sewing equipment – and a life-sized, embroidered soft sculpture in the shape of a human body. Both photographs closely relate to Katayama’s work as an activist and public speaker. Frustrated by the fact that high heels for wearers of prosthetic limbs were not readily available, Katayama began to make her own. The work developed into the High Heel Project, where she documents her process of making and wearing high heels with artificial legs.