Collection Online
Search the Collection 搜索M+藏品
M+, Hong Kong, © Mako Idemitsu/EAI
On View
Mediatheque
Mako Idemitsu 出光真子
Great Mother (HARUMI) 偉大的母親（晴美）
1983
Celebrated for her feminist videos, Mako Idemitsu investigates gender roles within Japanese patriarchal society. In Great Mother (HARUMI), actors and actresses portray members of a Japanese family coping with a rebellious adolescent daughter. Torn between a domineering mother and a distant father, the daughter refuses to go to school and locks herself in her bedroom. The evident tension between mother and daughter over schooling contrasts with the relaxed attitude the father takes towards his daughter’s education. This family dynamic reflects an underlying expectation that domestic life requires the mother’s total dedication. In one scene, a pre-recorded video of a mother with a kind demeanor dressed in a traditional Japanese kimono appears on one of the several television monitors displayed conspicuously in the family home. This unique approach of presenting images within images is one of the artist’s signature techniques and has become known as the ‘Mako Style’. The interplay between the actors and the monitors reveals the protagonists’ inner conflicts and suggests how mass media has permeated all facets of life.
Loading