Momoyo Torimitsu (b. 1967) is a little tired of being remembered for Jiro Miyata, a life-size robot she created based on a middle-aged salaryman in 1994. But who could forget? Miyata, which Torimitsu had crawl around the streets of Tokyo, Paris, New York and other cities, so brilliantly embodied the hard working, misunderstood, badly dressed everyman of Japan's post-bubble era. But the artist has since moved on.
Based in New York since 1996, she has created art that comments on a wide range of issues, from escalating globalism to Japan's obsession with cuteness. In 2001, Torimitsu orchestrated a large public-art project called "Made in Sumida," that involved family-run factories in the Sumida Ward of Tokyo. The final installations from the project incorporated the factory's products and video works shot at the factories as well as other forms of art.
Last month she was back in Tokyo to participate in the Mori Art Museum's contemporary exhibition, "All About Laughter" [See Re:VIEW page]. Her contribution is "Horizons," a striking in stallation of 100 small action figures (made based on GI Joe dolls) that sport business suits and the faces of European, American and Asian men crawling all over an abstract map of the world. Torimitsu spoke with The Japan Times the day after the show opened.