I think it's nice to share with everybody the statement of art that Momoko is created and brings us together.
Yay for my obssession!
I bought the Hara Museum Documents 7 a while ago but I haven’t had a chance to post it on the forum yet. I was intended to scan the page and post it to the forum but the font size used in this document is hopelessly tiny so I type it all out again.
You can buy the Hara Documents 7 in Hara Museum online Shop.
Link: https://www.haramuseum.or.jp/shop_en/sh ... &GrpId=222
Please note this intellectual property belong to Hara Museum and PetWORKs Co.Ltd.
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Hara Documents 7: Between Complete and Incomplete…Fashion Doll “MOMOKOâ€Â----Finished, not finished, finished, not finished…-----
Masami Tsubouchi Assisstant Curator, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art.
Most girls can remember dressing dolls when they were young. It was 35 years ago in Japan that the dressable doll “Licca†was put on the market by Takara. For many of the now fully mature girls who played with her, the dressable doll is nothing than a nostalgic memento from their childhood or a plaything for their own children. The dressable doll that Namie Manabe makes, however, is one designed by an adult for another adult.(1) As Manabe puts it: “Till now, dressable dolls all looked like they came straight out of girls’ comics (shojo manga). It’s as if time had stopped for twenty or thirty years. Because of this, I wanted to make a doll with a face that I personally liked.†(2) The result was “Momoko,†a doll that reflected the artist’s modern, full-grown sensibilities, with a cutting edge look that would not be out of place even in a Tokyo fashion district like Daikanyama or Omotesando.
In recent years, there have been many doll exhibitions at art museums. Though human in form like figure sculpture or the so-called “artistic†doll, the dressable doll is seen as a “toy†and not as “artwork†and often appears in exhibitions concerning Japanese lifestyle. Momoko seems also devoid of any artistic statement and is easily purchased to the internet (3), and so there is a natural inclination to use the word “toy,†and an immediate suspicion about her appearance in a museum. However, it is such doubts are like a fresh wind that gives rise to new discoveries and questions. This is why Momoko was chosen as the subject of the seventh Hara Documents.
Manabe wants people to play with Momoko. Her experience at a game manufacturer has convinced her of the power of entertainment. She believes it is okay for people to freely handle Momoko, to play with her, to laugh and enjoy themselves within the museum, a setting that allows people to view artwork undisturbed and at their own pace. Through Momoko, a doll designed to appeal to adult also, people find liberation from the formality of the museum and play with child-like abandon.
By being both a subject and a medium of expression, one might say that the dressable doll never reaches the stage of completion normally connected with other works of art, which are normally exhibited when deemed complete by the artist. In the case of paintings and sculptures, this may come with the last stroke of the brush or chisel. A painting, when looked at from another perspective, “might be seen as a kind of screen of membrane through which the viewer “enters†another world, to take part in a story taking place within that world.†(4) In this light, the painting might be considered consummated at the point the viewer enters. For some artworks, such as those that use optical illusions or interactive art, a particular kind of observation or participation by the viewer is a necessary step towards its consummation. In either case, the consummation occurs at the moment the viewer makes the appropriate connection with the work.
What we get from the creator of Momoko are only the multiple choices by which the work is created. What we get is not a “completed†work, but something that is completed only when the owner dresses her. And furthermore, what was completed is completed anew each time her clothes are changed. In other words, the completed work is really a state of being incomplete, and thus a completely finished Momoko will never exit. Within the gallery of the museum, the viewers are participations in the creation of Momoko the artwork, and that participation is expected of them. And should the viewers get tired of Momoko’s appearance, they are free to change her clothing as often as they want. It is the repeated act of changing her clothes that places Momoko into an endless loop between completeness and in completeness. Till now, six versions of Momoko have been manufactured (not including a seventh non-commercial version), each with a version name such as “Momoko Ver.DHEXs†and “Momoko Ver.0.1XP.†Each version, though identical in form, is characterized by different clothing and make-up, thereby presenting a constantly upgradable form like that of a computer, a quality that is also be inferred by the name.
Another characteristic of Momoko is the invitation she presents to viewers to come up with their own take on art (i.e., beauty) through the act of changing her clothes. The intent of many people may be to complete her in their own way, but the result are nothing more than a single instance of subjectivity at the given point in time. Once dressed, the same Momoko might appear incomplete to another person, or even by the same person after a passage of time, leading to another change of clothing. Since ages past, artist have created things in an attempt to express new kinds of beauty, or to express beauty in one of its myriad forms. But expressing all kinds of beauty in a single piece of art has never been possible, and so reflections on the diverse nature of beauty have always been the province of the written word. Dressable dolls, however, allow the subjectivity and diversity of beauty to be expressed in a variety of ways through the changing of clothing.
Yet some people may still have doubts about Momoko’s status as a work of art. With respect to the way she was created, Manabe did not hesitate to rely on the expertise of others if that was required to realize the image in her mind. She also incorporated the ideas of the doll group LW DOLLS. In this way, she is vastly different from the general image of the solitary artist silently giving form to a work of art. Hitoshi Nomura initiated his solar car project because he believed that “even though art is generally thoughts of as the expression of the individual, the survival of art in the 21st century will only be possible if individual expression is transcended and creation achieved as a group effort.â€Â(5) In this way, one may think of Manabe’s “Momoko Project†as 21st century art that concentrates the knowledge and sensibilities of a great number of people, as well as, in the end, the purchasers (viewers) who take Momoko in their hands. And the normal dressable doll is not merely a toy that one dresses up; it is something that children use to learn about society and relationships between people through role-playing. By isolating out only the dress-up part, Manabe has turned Momoko into something that is “viewed,†and in so doing has made it possible to consider her from the perspective of art.
Notes
(1) According to Manabe, the people who buy her dolls range in age from theirs 20s to their 30s. These age groups are also her target audience.
(2) From an artist-curator dialog that took place on November 18, 2001 during the exhibition “Credit Game.â€Â
(3) The doll is sold through the Internet by the doll sales division of PetWORKs, a company founded by the artist Kazuhiko Hachiya to produce the e-mail software called “PostPet.†According to Manabe, Hachiya believes his conception, “PostPet,†and Momoko belong in the category of “mass produced art.â€Â
(4) Taro Chiezo, Theorization of the Image: For a Second-generation Painting, Yuriika, October 2001, Seido-sha.
(5) Hara Museum Review No.46, p.8, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, 1999.
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My Note:
Time: The instance moment of subjectivity that Manabe mention is opposed to the idea that the time for dressable doll seem to had stopped for 30 years.
As PetWORKs begin to introduce their new brand CCS which mainly focus on clothing and knitwear for 1/6 scale dolls, Momoko is just produced to serve the purpose of being a model showing the CCS fashion of the seasons. Great!
Since there is no Momoko Institute, I have to teach myself about Momoko. Hehehe
I think I agree with Mikan when she said somewhere in the forum that Momoko is really humanistic expression. I totally agree I love the way this article stated that “even though art is generally thoughts of as the expression of the individual, the survival of art in the 21st century will only be possible if individual expression is transcended and creation achieved as a group effort.â€Â
When I reflected upon myself how I feel so inspired by you all and want to do the same. And because of this wonderful forum so that I have an opportunity to share my obsession with you. And especially because your momoko are all very unique that make me want to see every single expression you guys project in your momoko.
Life is so rich and I’m not going to limit myself with momoko only, but I can feel that momoko will lead me to something very unexpectedly fulfillment.
Godness me, I didn’t mean to write an essay here
Sorry !!!
I love that part in the article too.