Tabaimo

"'Yumechigae.' According to the dictionary, this means: A charm to divert misfortune after experiencing a nightmare." Thus opens the essay to this exquisite exhibition catalog for a solo show of Japanese artist Tabaimo’s work at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, in the summer of 2003. Tabaimo is a contemporary Japanese artist whose immersive video installations evoke Japanese woodblock prints (Ukiyo-e), manga, and anime to express the anxieties underpinning Japanese society in an age of globalization. The catalog is designed in the shape of a Buddhist sutra, with the cover boards wrapped in patterned gold paper. The accordion-style binding has text and images from the exhibition on one side, while the reverse features surreal and unsettling images from Tabaimo’s complex world of turtles and Japanese salarymen, all printed in black and gold.