Tari Ito

Tari Ito
イトー・ターリ
Born
Miwako Ito (伊藤 美和子)[1]

1951
Tokyo, Japan
Died22 December 2021 (age 70)
Known forPerformance Art
Notable workSelf-Portrait (自画像)
Awards2011 Yayori Journalist Award Winner

Tari Ito (イトー・ターリ, Itō Tāri; 1951 – 22 September 2021) was a Japanese performance artist, activist, and organizer based in Tokyo who presented her work in Asia, North America, and Europe. She was one of the few openly lesbian artists in Japan.[2][3]

Biography

Ito was born in 1951 in Tokyo,[4] as Miwako Ito.[5][6] She studied arts at Wako University between 1970 and 1974. During her third year at the university, Ito first began performing pantomime after joining a theatre course. After graduation, she continued her training for around eight years. Ito took the artist name Tari Ito, inspired by the muse Thalia after reading a poem by Jean Cocteau. She also became aware that she was a lesbian during the same timeframe, but only came out in 1996.[6]

She performed as a pantomime artist Japan and the Netherlands before becoming active as a performance artist in the late 1980s, and as a feminist and lesbian artist since the 1990s.[7] She established and founded the Women's Art Network (WAN) in 1994 in Tokyo,[8] which organized Women Breaking Boundaries 21, an exhibition of women artists from Japan and other parts of Asia in 2001.[2] Ito set up PA/F (Performance Art/Feminism) Space in 2003.

Ito's performance and artistic practice focused on exploring sexuality, military violence against women, and the fear of radiation exposure after Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Her work "has continued to draw on themes and materials from daily life to produce live performance artworks that she believes can become catalysts for change".[9]

Since 2010, Ito had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.[10] In 2013, Ito was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy.[11] Despite the limited mobility caused by the degenerative neurological conditions, she continued performing during that time.[12] By 2020, she required the use of a wheelchair.[11] Ito died from ALS complications on 22 September 2021, at the age of 70.[6]

In 2022, on the one-year anniversary of Ito's death, an exhibit about her life was held in Koganei, Tokyo.[13]

Work

In 1996, Ito performed Self-Portrait (自画像) at various venues in Japan,[14] and as part of Womanifesto in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1997 and 1999.[13][15] Ito considers the piece, in which she comes out as lesbian, as a "turning point" in her career.[4] Other performances include Memory of Epidermis (1994), Me Being Me (1999), Where is the Fear (2001), I Would Not Forget You (2006),[14] One Response (2008-2010),[16] One Response for Bae Bong-gi and Countless Other Women (ひとつの応答 ぺポンギさんと数えきれない女たち) (2012), and Before the 37 Trillion Pieces Get to Sleep (37兆個が眠りに就くまえに) (2019).[14]

Her work has been featured in the 3rd Nippon International Performance Art Festival NIPAF '96 (1996),[17] and the exhibitions Womanifesto and Womanifesto II (1999),[18] Text and Subtext (2000-2003),[19] Women Breaking Boundaries 21 (2001),[20] and Women In-Between (2012).[21]

References

  1. ↑ "イトー・ターリ". AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes (in Japanese).
  2. 1 2 Shimada, Yoshiko (21 August 2019). "Shortlist | The Defiant Fringed Pink: Feminist Art in Japan". Like a Fever. Asia Art Archive. Retrieved 13 March 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  3. ↑ Shimizu, Akiko (2007). "Scandalous Equivocation: A Note on the Politics of Queer Self-Naming". Inter-Asia Cultural Studies. 8 (4): 509–513. doi:10.1080/14649370701567963.
  4. 1 2 "イトー・ターリ ITO Tari". Asian Women Artists (database) (in Japanese and English). 3 September 2020. Archived from the original on 20 March 2023. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  5. ↑ "Tāri Itō". AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 Wong, Pamela (21 October 2021). "Obituary: Tari Ito (1951–2021)". ArtAsiaPacific. Retrieved 12 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  7. ↑ Tonooka, Naomi (1999). "Desire and Sexual (In)difference: Constructing Lesbian Self in Tari Ito's Performance with the Skin". Theatre Research International. 24 (3): 254–258. doi:10.1017/S0307883300019106. S2CID 147197662.
  8. ↑ "2011 Yayori Journalist Award: the recipients - 2011 Yayori Journalist Award Winner---ITO Tari". Women's Human Rights Activities Award - Yayori Award. 2011. Archived from the original on 8 December 2023. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  9. ↑ Jennison, Rebecca (2017). Performance, Feminism and Affect in Neoliberal Times. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 297–308. ISBN 978-1-137-59809-7.
  10. ↑ "Remembering Tari Ito – FADO". FADO Performance Art.
  11. 1 2 "Tari Ito – Feb 5 – March". Gallery 1313. 19 January 2020.
  12. ↑ "Tari Ito - Window Box Gallery". WIAprojects. 15 January 2020. Archived from the original on 28 January 2023. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  13. 1 2 Kitahara, Megumi (2026). "Itō Tāri and Womanifesto". Womanifesto Way.
  14. 1 2 3 "Tari Ito / イトーターリ｜パフォーマンスアート". Independent Performance Artists' Moving Image Archive (in Japanese and English). Archived from the original on 21 March 2023. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  15. ↑ Bovino, Emily Verla (19 October 2020). "Womanifesto: Crafting Communities at Asia Art Archive". Ocula Magazine. Archived from the original on 28 March 2023. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  16. ↑ "'War Makes People Insane': Dramatic work by performance artist Tari Ito lays bare the realities of military sexual violence". Ten Thousand Things. 11 March 2010. Archived from the original on 23 November 2023. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  17. ↑ "The 3rd Nippon International Performance Art Festival (NIPAF '96)". Asia Art Archive. Archived from the original on 8 December 2023. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  18. ↑ "Womanifesto-II: The 2nd International Women's Art Exchange". Asia Art Archive. Retrieved 13 March 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  19. ↑ "Text & Subtext: Contemporary Art and Asian Woman". Asia Art Archive. Archived from the original on 8 December 2023. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  20. ↑ "Women Breaking Boundaries 21". Asia Art Archive. Archived from the original on 8 December 2023. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  21. ↑ "Women In-Between: Asian Women Artists 1984-2012". Asia Art Archive. Archived from the original on 8 December 2023. Retrieved 13 March 2021.


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