"Metamorphosis," an exhibition of "Outsider art" by Judith Scott, opens today at the Shiseido Gallery in Tokyo's Ginza district.

Born in Ohio in 1943, Scott was diagnosed with Down syndrome at birth. At age 7 she was put into a home for the mentally disabled, where she spent the next 36 years until 1986, when her twin sister took her out of the institution and brought her to her home in California where Scott still lives under her care.

Scott creates her unique artworks by wrapping pieces of string or cloth around items such as shoes, fans and shopping carts, turning them into cocoons. These three-dimensional forms take a couple of months for her to finish, and sometimes turn out larger than the artist herself.

Outsider art has recently attracted growing attention in international art circles. The term is an English translation of the French art brut, which was coined by Jean Dubuffet, a French artist exploring the possibilities of artworks created by mentally impaired people. It is now used to describe art made by anyone who has not had proper art training.

Since 1987, Scott has attended the Creative Growth Art Center, an organization offering lifelong education for the mentally and physically disabled, on a daily basis to create her artworks.