Tabaimo

Ayako Tabata was born in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. She is the middle of three sisters. Her father was a salaryman; her mother, Shion Tabata, is a ceramicist who creates traditional dinnerware in the style of Ogata Kenzan. She graduated from Kyoto University of Art and Design in 1999. == Career ==

Tabaimo's first video installation, Japanese Kitchen, directed while she was still a student, attracted attention. Yuka Uematsu, a curator at the National Museum of Art, Osaka, said, "When I first saw her work, I really couldn't believe that a university student had made it […] She was focusing on typical Japanese society, but critically, in her own way." The pop artist Keiichi Tanaami, an instructor at Kyoto University, was an important early influence. Tabaimo's work features elements of manga and anime, but it is also inspired by traditional Japanese art forms, particularly ukiyo-e woodblock printing. Birds, insects, sea creatures, and tortoises often appear in her work, intermingling with humans and disembodied human parts in both natural and urban environments, which at times morph into surreal landscapes. The transformation of familiar objects and situations has the effect of not only questioning their meaning, but challenging the viewer's perception of the work itself: "I don’t just put the work in front of them and make it a comfortable experience for them – they need to be proactive in their viewing...I think the viewers’ stories themselves are the work, so...by setting up spaces which cause the viewer discomfort — spaces which have elements in them that need to be overcome — the works become a participatory experience," she said in 2007. Tabaimo rarely explains her works within exhibitions. ==Selected exhibitions==

Solo exhibitions include: Utsutsushi Utsushi, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Seattle, WA (2016); San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA (2016); MEKURUMEKU, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW, Australia (2014); Boundary Layer, Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, London (2010); Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris (2006); YOROYORON, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2006). Tabaimo represented Japan with teleco-soup at the 54th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia (2011). International group exhibitions include: the Yokohama Triennale (2001); the São Paulo Art Biennial (2002); the 15th Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2006); and the 52nd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia (2007). Interdisciplinary collaboration is a major part of Tabaimo’s artistic endeavor. Since 2006 she has provided visual elements to performances with Ohad Naharin’s Batsheva Dance Company, choreographer Maki Morishita, architect Yuko Nagayama, and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto. Tabaimo later worked again with Maki Morishita to create "Fruits borne out of rust". Her work can be found in the collections of the National Museum of Art, Osaka; Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; MUSAC, Spain; Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Asia Society Museum, New York, NY; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. == Personal life ==

In 2008, after six years of living in Tokyo, Tabaimo moved into her parents' home in Karuizawa, a resort town in Nagano prefecture, along with her younger sister and primary assistant Imoimu. ==References==