Getty Museum

OMIAI♡

Date

2001

Medium

Chromogenic print

Culture

Japanese

Department

Photographs

Institution

Getty Museum

Object ID

4bf23060-6a8b-4a68-bf4e-6f04c5fe8ade

For this series, the artist transformed herself - through the aid of costumes, wigs, make-up, and weight gain - into thirty different characters. These portraits mimic photographs traditionally produced as part of the Japanese custom of omiai, or the first meeting of couples whose marriages are being arranged, during which families exchange photographs of their children in the hope of finding a suitable husband or wife for them. This unique set of OMIAI includes vintage frames selected by the artist to represent how such portraits would traditionally be displayed in the windows of local photo studios. In this photograph, the artist is standing, wearing a patterned white, red, and black kimono with a red and black obi. Her dark hair is pinned up with red and white hair clips.

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