top of page
Wild Corporation
Mimi Kato
Detail from Wild Corporation: Perfume Sprayer Mace
Perfume atomizer, Chanel No. 5, feather and various office supplies, 2018
and in many of the images from this series, the characters' body language and facial expressions are ones of fear, terror, anguish, and rage. There is of course a history of women artists who portray rage, from Artemisia Gentileschi to Valie Export, Betty Saar, and Pipilotti Rist. Are weapons of attack such as this one grounded in anger and resistance, or are there other emotions at work here?
IKL: Some of these weapons are clearly aggressive
Mimi Kato on objects of attack.
Objects of AttackMimi Kato
00:00 / 01:10
These weapons are created along with the narrative. I wanted to create images of capable women doing everything from hunting to fighting by using only office tools in order to emphasize the sense of absurdity in the world they live in. I wanted these weapons to look well-made to show the craftiness of characters. I started with the crossbow and I wanted to make it functional. The trigger actually works and it can shoot a very short distance. After all, the flimsy office supplies are not suitable to make weapons but I wanted them to look real. The material selection expanded during the making process and I decided to add natural materials that women could find in their world and also feminine products like pantyhose.
bottom of page