"Art should be for everyone" – Mari Katayama | Tate

Artist Mari Katayama creates hand-sewn sculptures and photographs that prompt conversations and challenge misconceptions about our bodies. Born with the developmental condition congenital tibial hemimelia, Katayama chose to have her legs amputated at the age of nine. Her wearable sculptures, which also feature in her images, often include limbs, hands and embellished hearts. In this short film, we visit Katayama’s at her studio in Japan and hear about how she uses everyday materials that she finds around her – including her own body, clothes and newspaper clippings – to make her sculptures and images. As she says, 'I use materials that anyone can get anywhere. I think that the needle and the thread are the strongest tools.' Subscribe for weekly films: http://goo.gl/X1ZnEl




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Here's my take on Art for everyone

"Not all things are for sale" – artist Edgar Calel's family portrait | Tate

“In Indigenous Kaqchikel thought,” says artist Edgar Calel, "there is almost nothing that is done alone. All the things we do are done collectively and that collectivity is what serves as the basis for discovering: what is your function? What is your role within society?” In 2023, Tate became custodians - not owners - of Calel’s work The Echo of an Ancient Form of Knowledge. Based on Mayan thinking and custom, the agreement recognises that Calel’s artwork is more than just a physical form and pays homage to the local Indigenous communities within Guatemala. In this short film, we visit Calel and his family in their home town of San Juan Comalapa, and watch communal art-making in action. Subscribe for weekly films: http://goo.gl/X1ZnEl




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