School days / B
Tomoko Sawada, Japanese, born 1977
2004
Lambda print
Artist Proof from a limited edition of fifteen and three artist proofs
Image: 5 1/8 × 7 1/16 in. (13 × 18 cm)
Sheet: 7 1/2 × 9 7/16 in. (19 × 24 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Evelyn A. and William B. Jaffe 2015 Fund
2020.36
Geography
Place Made: Japan, Asia
Period
21st century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Photograph
Not on view
Inscriptions
Signed and numbered, on reverse, in black ink, lower right: S.Tomoko AP 3/3
Label
In her School Days series, Tomoko Sawada replicates her own image in the guise of a schoolgirl to fill up a group school photo. Each girl in the photo is Sawada wearing the same uniform, but with slight variations. A school photo is a form of annual documentation that records individuals as part of a class and a member of a school, enforcing conformity to the group. Here, with each “different” girl in fact the same person, Sawada questions how individuality can exist in these kinds of institutions. Her use of photo manipulation and modified self-portraiture puts Sawada in a conversation with fellow contemporary artists in the Hood Museum’s collection like Cindy Sherman and Yasumasa Morimura.
From the 2024 exhibition An Instant Out of Time: Shaping a Collection, curated by Alisa Swindell, Associate Curator of Photography
Course History
Art History 62.81 and Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages 62.13, Women, Gender & Art, Sunglim Kim, Winter 2024
Art History 48.02, Histories of Photography, Katie Hornstein, Spring 2024
African and African American Studies 63.01, Sociology 71.01, Race Matters: Race Made to Matter, Trica Keaton, Spring 2024
Music 18.03, African and African American Studies 39.07, Verzuz: A History of Black Popular Music, Allie Martin, Spring 2024
Exhibition History
An Instant Out of Time: Shaping a Collection, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 20-July 21, 2024.
School Photos and their Afterlives, Northeast Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 8-April 12, 2020.
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