Recruit/BLACK

Series TitleRecruit

Artist Tomoko Sawada (Japanese, born 1977)

Date2006

MediumChromogenic print

DimensionsImage and sheet (each): 2 × 1 1/2 inches (5.08 × 3.81 cm)
Mount (est.): 27 3/4 × 23 3/4 inches (70.49 × 60.33 cm)
Framed: 28 9/16 × 24 9/16 × 1 1/4 inches (72.55 × 62.39 × 3.18 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: acquired through the generosity of the Photography Society

Object number2009.1

SignedSigned on frame backing board, lower right corner, white label in black pen.

InscribedOn frame backing board, white label, black type with black pen: "Tomoko Sawada / Recruit/Black / 2006 / edition nr. / 8/10"

Markingsnone

Edition/State/Proofed. 8/10

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

DescriptionImage of 100 passport size photographs of the artist with different hairstyles and expressions but the same white shirt and dark blazer mounted in 10 rows of 10.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

For this work, Tomoko Sawada made 100 passport-sized images of herself dressed in the culturally sanctioned black-and-white corporate attire of her native Japan. Individually, such portraits would typically accompany job applications.

When the images are seen as a grid, it becomes impossible for us to assign any singular identity to Sawada. As the artist has said: “Anyone in these ID pictures could be myself.”

Provenance

Purchased from Zabriskie Gallery, New York, NY, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2009.

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