{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1772096"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1772096/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2024PA9315/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2024PA9315/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2024PA9315","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2024PA9314","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1772096","accessionNumber":"PH.3386-2024","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"‘just one of those things #002’, 2021","type":""},{"title":"just one of those things #002","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Mari Katayama is a Japanese multimedia artist based in Gunma.  She often works with meticulously hand-sewn objects, which appear in her photographic works and installations.  Katayama’s work questions societal norms and the perception of others. In 2011, Katayama launched the High Heel Project as a space to question ‘Is fashion a luxury item? How can we give freedom of choice for everyone?’ She worked with creative collaborators to design customised high-heeled shoes for prosthetic legs. The project confronts broader assumptions about what is natural or artificial, and how prosthetics wearers are often offered very limited, functional options.","physicalDescription":"A photo collage featuring a portrait of a seated woman wearing prosthetics. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Mari Katayama","id":"AUTH396405"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":"Mari Katayama is a Japanese multimedia artist based in Tokyo. She was born in 1987 with a very rare genetic condition called tibial hemimelia which stopped the bones in her lower legs from fully developing, and at age nine she elected to have her effected limbs amputated. Her practice includes photography, performance and hand-sewn sculptures, which she wears in elaborately staged self-portraits. \r\n\r\nKatayama’s interest in photography coincided with the emergence of Myspace, an early blogging website and form of social media. She and her sister would take and share pictures of themselves on the platform, creating a safe virtual world where Katayama could present a public version of herself separate from the disability which had dictated much of her life. ‘Online, no one knew I had prosthetics. They were just looking at my art and judging me through that.’ Myspace became a vital outlet for Katayama, and is where she first melded her diverging and intersecting interests in fashion, staged photography and Japanese contemporary art. Over time, her sets and props became more elaborate, and she placed her disability in centre frame to raise vital questions about beauty and its standards, ableism, obsession and the body.\r\n"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"photographic paper","id":"AAT14190"}],"techniques":[{"text":"C-type process","id":"THES258425"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"","categories":[{"text":"Woman Artist","id":"THES387590"},{"text":"Disability","id":"THES268732"},{"text":"Performance art","id":"THES48914"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"DOP","id":"THES291628"},"images":["2024PA9315","2024PA9314"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"38A","id":"THES49826"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photographs","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2021","earliest":"2021-01-01","latest":"2021-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Gift of the artist","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"630","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"frame","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"830","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"frame","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"This photograph was included in the 2023 exhibition 'Acts of Resistance: Photography, Feminisms and the Art of Protest', produced by the V&A Parasol Foundation Women in Photography project and the South London Gallery. ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Photograph by \tMari Katayama, ‘just one of those things #002’, 2021, C-print, 630 x 830mm.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"Collaged colour photograph, in a hand-decorated frame which includes seashells.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Cut Out: A Feminist History of Photo Collage, Montage and Assemblage (T&H, V&A publishing, spring 2026)\r\n\r\nMari Katayama is a Japanese multimedia artist whose meticulously hand-sewn ‘soft sculptures’ often appear in her photographic works and installations. Katayama confronts conventional notions of beauty and questions the body’s relationship to the material world. In 2011 she launched the High Heel Project as a space to question the societal impact of fashion, working with creative collaborators to design customized high-heeled shoes for prosthetic legs. In this photomontage, Katayama presents a confident self-portrait wearing white stilettos. Surrounding her are collaged images of her hands, delicate lace and shells, which are a recurring theme in Katayama’s work and feature in the accompanying, elaborately hand-decorated frame.","date":{"text":"03/12/2025","earliest":"2025-12-03","latest":"2025-12-03"}}],"partNumbers":["PH.3386-2024"],"accessionNumberNum":"3386","accessionNumberPrefix":"PH","accessionYear":2024,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-02-24","recordCreationDate":"2024-02-07","availableToBook":false}}