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Mako Idemitsu

Japanese experimental media artist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Mako Idemitsu (出光 真子, Idemitsu Mako; born 1940, Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese media artist known for her experimental filmmaking. Beginning in the 1970s, she has explored themes such as gender roles, domestic life, and identity, often integrating personal narrative with psychological and feminist critique.[2]

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Early life

Idemitsu was born in Ōta-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Her father was the Japanese businessman and art collector Sazō Idemitsu, founder of Idemitsu Kōsan.[3] She had strained relationships with her parents and was disinherited by her father after choosing to live in California.[4] Idemitsu stated that her father held a Confucian attitude towards women and adopted patriarchal view of gender roles, which led to the belittling of his wife and daughters. She also said that he acted in ways that denied them individuality and independence.

Idemitsu attended Waseda University in Tokyo from 1958 to 1962, where she studied Japanese history at the Faculty of Letters. Idemitsu considered her undergraduate education to be under-stimulating and often frustrated with what she perceive as misogynistic comments from her professors. She participated in many extracurricular events, such as the university's Contemporary Literature Society, and was highly politically engaged, joining in student demonstrations against the US-Japan Security Treaty of 1960.[5]

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New York

Idemitsu attended Columbia University in New York from 1963 to 1964.[6] She had hoped to live in New York City and had to convince her father to support her graduate studies. She enjoyed the multicultural environment of New York and the freedom she had, attending different art events by herself, without the legacy and baggage of her family's ties with the Japanese art scene. She did not manage to stay in New York beyond her graduate studies and left for Europe soon after her student visa expired.[5]

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California

Idemitsu lived in Santa Monica, Los Angeles from 1965 to 1972.[7] Idemitsu was introduced to Sam Francis, through her father's acquisition of his work, and she married him in 1966.[8] She found that even among the hippies and the liberated counterculture of the 1960s in California, male chauvinism was inescapable, different in nature from that of her homeland, but chauvinism nonetheless.[9] While searching for new inspiration, she bought a Super 8 film camera on impulse and began her career as a film artist. In 1972, she filmed the Womanhouse started by Judy Chicago and others, in order to create imagery based on this work.[10] Idemitsu became interested in the Women's Liberation Movement, and understood how film documentation was crucial for the awareness of their activities; her interest in 16mm film cameras ensued.[11] Idemitsu was very aware that her works would not be as legible to English-speaking audiences who did not know the Japanese language and culture, even if they showed interest in the work's visual aesthetics.[5]

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Tokyo

Idemitsu returned to Japan with Francis and her sons in 1973, originally planning to stay in Japan for a year. In 1974, when Francis returned to the United States, Idemitsu chose to remain in Japan. The couple later divorced, with Francis marrying for a fifth time in 1985. Although Idemitsu increasingly felt repressed in Tokyo, she realized that her video practice allowed her to express a full spectrum of feelings, much more so than she felt was possible in the United States. It was only upon her return to Japan that she could properly produce her At Santa Monica (1973-5) and At Any Place (1975-8) series, using and reflecting on the images she shot of the United States.[5]

Upon returning to Tokyo Idemitsu established her video practice independently, while partnering with other video artists such as the members of Video Hiroba. In particular, Idemitsu credits Nobuhiro Kawanaka and Kyōko Michishita for helping her learn the technical process of video equipment. Michael Goldberg, a Canadian who co-organized the Video Communication/Do It Yourself Kit symposium and exhibition, became Idemitsu's consistent collaborator and is credited as a Director of Photography for many of her videos. Idemitsu also worked extensively with Yoshimitsu Takahashi to develop her films. Idemitsu was also immersed in the broader Japanese art scene, collaborating with Yoneyama Mamako after watching her pantomime Housewife's Tango to produce At Any Place 4 (1978). Idemitsu was also involved with Japanese art historians, in particular Kaori Chino, a feminist art historian who encouraged her to write and publish her autobiography.[5]

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Art

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Medium

The technical limitations of the equipment at the time influenced the direction of her work. Idemitsu first started to work in the United States, initially with 8 mm film, and then moved to 16 mm film. She became interested in capturing the mood, quality, and interplay of light and shadow.[9]

When she switched to working with video, the inability of the video cameras of the time to capture the quality of light led to the increasing use of narrative in her work. On her return to Japan, the cumbersomeness of the equipment and an inability to easily film outdoors led her to use indoor single-camera setups.[9] Idemitsu also produced a limited number of video installations.

Idemitsu's work has often been typified as being inspired by melodramas[12][13][14] and diary narration.[7] Critics such as Scott Nygren have attempted to locate Japanese cultural origins within her work, claiming a similarity between her narrative form with Noh theatre.[15]

Themes

Idemitsu is widely recognized for her feminist perspectives.[16] Her work engages deeply with themes of gender roles, personal identity, and the construction of the self within societal frameworks.[17] In particular, she critically examines the role of the modern Japanese family, highlighting how its traditional structure can contribute to the suppression of women's identities.[18] Idemitsu has often cited Simone de Beauvoir as one of her major influences, creating works such as Kae, Act like a Girl (1993) inspired by de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, "People are not born as women. They become women".[19][11] Idemitsu also explores the disconcerting realities of Japanese womanhood, including scenes of domestic abuse, harassment and rape.[20]

Idemitsu's first films were home movies of her sons and of family life. This domestic setting, with the action revolving around family interactions, remains the main theme of her films.[8]

A recurring motif in her works is disembodied forms; the television abstracting torsos, heads, or even eyes. These disembodied characters, usually female, may act indifferently to their protagonists or may actively oppress them and can be interpreted both at face value as the mother, daughter, or wife of the protagonist or as a representation of their inner mind. For example, in Idemitsu's Great Mother trilogy, in as much as they are presented as the protagonist's mothers, these disembodied women also represent the super-ego[21] of the protagonist and are a personification of a lifetime of learned cultural values and societal norms and are thus an internalized ideal from which the protagonist cannot escape.

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Notable works

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Film and video

What a Woman Made (1973)

In Idemitsu's seminal feminist video, the image of a tampon swirling in a toilet bowl slowly appears, as the artist speaks about the troubling roles, responsibilities and expectations of women in a clinical tone. Minimal in composition, What a Woman Made is a candid critique of the treatment of women in Japanese society.[19]

Sam Are You Listening? (1974)

Commissioned by the American Center Japan, this hour-long documentary video is Idemitsu's intimate portrayal of her then-husband, Sam Francis. Idemitsu interviewed 5 people about how they viewed Francis; Taeko Tomioka, Toru Takemitsu, Shuzo Takiguchi, Jiro Takamatsu, and Sazo Idemitsu.[19]

Another Day of A Housewife (1977)

This video was conceived out of Idemitsu's own frustrations of being a housewife, particularly the endless repetition of routine house chores. Idemitsu portrays her frustration with alienation and surveillance by interrupting each domestic scene with a televisual eye.[19]

Shadow Part 1 (1980) & Part 2 (1980), Animus Part 1 (1982) & Part 2 (1982)

In the Shadow and Animus series, Idemitsu explores Jungian psychoanalytical concepts by manifesting the Shadow and Animus as an additional layer and surface in videos of the Japanese domestic setting. They explore the personification of dreams, projections of mental imagery, and the difficulty of living under oppressive patriarchy.[19] This series builds upon Idemitsu's earlier work, Inner-man (1972), which was shot on film.

My America, Your America (1980)

Idemitsu proposes photographs by her collaborator, Akira Kobayashi,[22] to construct an eerie found-image video. Idemitsu balances blatant images of Americana to suggest the journey of a foreigner through these iconic landscapes, continually searching for a place within them to belong. It reflects upon her own experiences moving from coast to coast.

Kiyoko's Situation (1989)

Kiyoko, the middle-aged housewife has repressed the desire to express her identity for so long, and now it is coming out with a vengeance.[23] Idemitsu portrays the struggle for housewives to be filial, care for their family's needs and pursue their own creative ambitions. This film received awards from Mention Special du Jury category "EXPERIMENTAL" La Mondiale de film et videos, Quebec, Canada in 1991, and Prix Procirep Section Fiction, Festival International de Videos et Films, Centre Audivisuel Simone de Beauvoir, Paris, France in 1992.[19]

Installations

Still Life (1993–2000)

Still Life is a two-channel video installation, with moving images projected onto two gigantic calla lilies placed side by side. On one lily, erect like a phallus, a symbol of the male sexual organ, hands pull the petals off a red rose. In the second, the pistil, symbolic of the female essence, is missing. A woman is shown imprisoned behind an invisible, transparent wall, begging to be released. A woman's voice-over endlessly repeats "Have a good day" and "Welcome home", echoing the supposed monotony of a housewife's existence.[11]

Real? Motherhood (2000)

Real? Motherhood is an installation that critically examines (and subverts) the myth of maternity. The single-channel installation repurposes Idemitsu's 1960s home movies, projecting images through a glass cradle. The moving images show Idemitsu holding one of her children, a baby suckling, mother and child looking at each other, and the baby's innocent smile. These are interspersed with black-and-white images of the ambiguous expression on the mother's face. Light falling from above onto the glass cradle conveys an impression of sanctity—the cradle is transmuted, for the mother, into an altar. However, Idemitsu insists that this Western type of cradle also looks like a coffin, reminding people that "in the midst of life we are in death".[11]

Literary work

What a Woman Made: Autobiography of a Filmmaker (ホワット·ア·うーまんめいど : ある映像作家の自伝 / Howatto a ūman meido : Aru eizō sakka no jiden), Iwanami Shoten (岩波書店), 2003. Official autobiography written by Idemitsu herself.

White Elephant, Chin Music Press (translation by Juliet Winters Carpenter), 2016. Fiction based on Idemitsu's life.

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Selected exhibitions and screenings

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Idemitsu's work has also been included in programmes for film festivals such as the Image Forum (1978, 1984, 1990), Oberhausen Short Film Festival (1993), and Singapore International Film Festival (1998).

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Personal life and family

Idemitsu has two sisters, and one of them, Takako, was a painter once married to art critic Yoshiaki Tōno.[5]

Idemitsu has two sons, Osamu and Shingo, from her marriage with Sam Francis, the latter becoming a painter later on.

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References

External links

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