Object Details
- Artist
- Shigeko Kubota, 2 Aug 1937 - 23 Jul 2015
- Sitter
- Shigeko Kubota, 2 Aug 1937 - 23 Jul 2015
- Exhibition Label
- Born Niigata, Japan
- A member of avant-garde circles in Tokyo and New York, artist, curator, and critic Shigeko Kubota was instrumental in transforming video technology into an international medium of artistic expression. With the arrival of affordable, portable equipment in the 1960s, video became “revolutionary.” Kubota explained that video was “equal to both men and women because it was new and fairly inexpensive, and we all had the same access to it.”
- Self-Portrait represents one of the artist’s first forays into the new medium. Experimenting with a synthesizer, Kubota wields video like a “new paintbrush” to create this deeply colorized self-portrait. This work also signals the artist’s practice of recycling and remixing. Self-Portrait contains layers of footage, some of which she reused for a future project, and the entire video served as a component for one of her video sculptures. “‘I video, therefore I am,’” Kubota once wrote, conveying her identification with and dedication to the medium.
- Nacida en Niigata, Japón
- Miembro de los círculos de vanguardia en Tokio y Nueva York, la artista, curadora y crítica Shigeko Kubota fue fundamental para transformar la tecnología del video en un medio de expresión artística internacional. Con la llegada de equipos asequibles y portátiles en la década de 1960, el video se convirtió en un medio “revolucionario”. Según Kubota, era un medio “equitativo para hombres y mujeres porque era nuevo y bastante económico, y todos teníamos el mismo acceso a él”.
- Self-Portrait es una de sus primeras incursiones en el nuevo medio. Kubota experimenta con un sintetizador y maneja el video como un “novedoso pincel” para crear este autorretrato de intenso colorido. La obra también anuncia su práctica de reciclar y remezclar, pues contiene secciones de metraje que ella usaría en proyectos futuros. También usó este video completo como elemento de una de sus videoesculturas. “Hago video, luego existo”, escribió Kubota para resaltar su identificación y dedicación al medio.
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Instition; this project received Federal support from the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum.
- c. 1970-71
- Object number
- NPG.2023.1
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Copyright
- © Estate of Shigeko Kubota
- Type
- Time-Based Media
- Medium
- Single-channel video (color, silent); transferred to digital
- Dimensions
- Duration: 5:28 min.
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Exhibition
- Recent Acquisitions 2023
- On View
- NPG, North Gallery 140
- National Portrait Gallery
- Topic
- Self-portrait
- Shigeko Kubota: Arts and Culture\Visual Arts\Artist
- Shigeko Kubota: Female
- Shigeko Kubota: Arts and Culture\Visual Arts\Artist\Sculptor
- Shigeko Kubota: Arts and Culture\Visual Arts\Art critic
- Shigeko Kubota: Arts and Culture\Visual Arts\Curator
- Shigeko Kubota: Arts and Culture\Visual Arts\Artist\Video artist
- Portrait
- Record ID
- npg_NPG.2023.1
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4271e5a75-b8bc-44f3-b425-1a578d8b65fd
