1983 Born in Tokyo, Japan
2008 Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, M.F.A. in Inter Media Art Course
Aki Inomata is creating artworks with living things, such as Hermit Crabs, Bagworms, Parakeets, Tortoises, Dogs and Water.
Her main exhibitions include: HAMBURG ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA(FRISE, Hamburg, Germany, 2014), I Wear the Dog's Hair and the Dog Wears My Hair (HAGISO, Tokyo, 2014), Ars Electoronica Festival 2014(Akademisches Gymnasium, Linz, Austria, 2014), Ogaki Biennale 2013 (IAMAS, Gifu, Japan, 2013), The 15th Exhibition of the Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art (Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki, Japan, 2012), Aki Inomata: Why Not Hand Over a 'Shelter' to Hermit Crabs? (The University of Vermont Fleming Museum, USA, 2011), No Man's Land (Former French Embassy, Tokyo, 2009)
"Why Not Hand Over a 'Shelter' to Hermit Crabs?" is a sort of lodging that I left for hermit crabs to wear.
In this series, subtitled "White Chapel", the lodging takes the form of religious facilities of Japan that are unattended by believers and made solely for the purpose of promoting the wedding ceremony.
These chapels are often made to be gothic, or a mishmash of different architectural styles. In order to find onto the building site, the rear or sides are boldly spared. These chapels are all to prevalent around town. I cannot help feel that these "gi-yofu" structures (imitations of Western architecture) reflect the identity of post-colonial Japan. A city modernized by mimicking the West, where even religious ways can be replaced at any time. In lodging in a place like that, just where exactly are we heading?