{{Infobox artist | name = Mika Tajima | birth_date = 1975 | birth_place = Los Angeles, California | education = Bryn Mawr College, Columbia University School of the Arts | website = http://mikatajima.com/ }}
'''Mika Tajima''' (born 1975 in Los Angeles, California) is a New York-based artist who employs sculpture, painting, media installation, and performance in her conceptual practice.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://art21.org/artist/mika-tajima/|title=Mika Tajima — Art21|work=Art21|access-date=2018-03-09|language=en}}</ref>
== Education == Tajima earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts and East Asian Studies from Bryn Mawr College in 1997, and a Master of Fine Arts graduate degree from the Columbia University School of the Arts in 2003. That year she was also a Post-Graduate Apprentice at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia.<ref name="11rgallery.com 2016">{{cite web |title=Mika Tajima - Artists + Projects - 11R Gallery |website=11rgallery.com |date=2016-12-02 |url=http://www.11rgallery.com/artists-and-projects/mika-tajima/biography |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200520063118/http://www.11rgallery.com/artists-and-projects/mika-tajima/biography |archive-date=2020-05-20 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
== Work ==
Tajima's practice materializes techniques developed to shape the physicality, productivity, and desires of the human body. Her work relates performance, control, and freedom to the embodied experience of architectonic and computational life.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/recipients/mika-tajima|title=Mika Tajima :: Foundation for Contemporary Arts|website=www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org|access-date=2019-05-09}}</ref>
Her early installations and collaborative work explored performance in relation to the built environment.<ref>{{cite web|title=Mika Tajima: The Double, Press Release|url=http://archive.thekitchen.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Tajima-PR-FINAL.pdf|publisher=The Kitchen|accessdate=21 March 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=MIKA TAJIMA: THE DOUBLE|url=https://thebass.org/art/mika-tajima/|publisher=The Bass Museum of Art|accessdate=21 March 2018}}</ref> Using the music recording studio, film production set, industrial factory, data centers, and office work environment as production sites, Tajima examined how these spaces shape our activities and bodies.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Maerkle|first1=Andrew|title=Alienation Through Beautification, Engagement After Alienation|url=http://www.art-it.asia/u/admin_ed_itv_e/HvYrKLG6RdAlj1gSV4Fa/|website=ART iT|date=8 September 2010 |accessdate=21 March 2018}}</ref> In each project, the performing subject confronts determined situations and seeks new possibilities through modes of non-performance and autonomy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/recipients/mika-tajima|title=Mika Tajima :: Foundation for Contemporary Arts|website=www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org|access-date=2019-05-09}}</ref>
Her other work draws on technologies used to control and affect the human body and mind. This includes techniques that shape psychological desires and our experience of space and time.<ref>{{cite web|title=Mika Tajima|url=http://www.the8thclimate.org/en/artists/mika_tajima/|publisher=11th Gwangju Biennale 2016|accessdate=21 March 2018}}</ref> “From architectural systems to ergonomic design to psychographic data, her works operate in the space between the transient and the tangible, and highlight the complex networks of power and submission that we experience in relationship to our physical bodies and virtual selves.”<ref>{{cite web|last1=Norton|first1=Margot|title=Mika Tajima: Æther|url=http://www.borusancontemporary.com/_Content/Media/downloads/sergibrosur.pdf|website=Borusan Contemporary|accessdate=21 March 2018}}</ref>
Through a residency at the Fabric Workshop, Tajima developed her Negative Entropy woven portrait series in which she focused on mechanical textile production, in particular the development of the Jacquard loom, as a technology linked to these early modes of industry, but also one that developed into our current age of computing and information management.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lyon|first1=Matthew|title=Total Body Conditioning: Mika Tajima|date=October 20, 2015|publisher=Black Dog Publishing|isbn=978-1908966971}}</ref> ''Meridian'' (2016), was developed using sentiment analysis and prediction technology, where the light sculpture responds in real time to the collective mood of a population expressed on live Twitter feeds from a particular geographic region, such as Istanbul.<ref name="Sabah">{{cite news|title=Japanese artist's work inspired by abstract material at Bosporus Gallery|url=https://www.dailysabah.com/arts-culture/2018/03/03/japanese-artists-work-inspired-by-abstract-material-at-bosporus-gallery|accessdate=9 March 2018|work=DailySabah|date=2 March 2018}}</ref><ref name="Uncu">{{cite news|last1=Uncu|first1=Erman Ata|title=Perili Köşk'te teknolojik hayalet avı|url=http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/kitap-sanat/perili-koskte-teknolojik-hayalet-avi-40765805|accessdate=9 March 2018|work=Hürriyet|date=8 March 2018|language=Turkish}}</ref> Her exhibitions include ''Disassociate'' (2007), ''The Double'' (2008), and ''Negative Entropy'' (2014).<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/arts/design/mika-tajima-negative-entropy.html|title=Mika Tajima: 'Negative Entropy'|last=Smith|first=Roberta|date=2014-03-27|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-03-09|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/studio_visit/interview_mika_tajima-52312|title=Artist Mika Tajima on Shaping the Human Body Through Sculpture|website=Artspace|language=en|access-date=2018-03-09}}</ref>
== Collaboration == In 2003, she co-founded New Humans, a collaborative group including then-artists Eric Tsai and her now-husband Howie Chen to make works involving sound, installation, and performance actions.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/mika-tajima/|title=Mika Tajima by Kareem Estefan - BOMB Magazine|website=bombmagazine.org|access-date=2018-03-09}}</ref> "New Humans" is a moniker for Tajima's projects with other musicians, artists and designers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newhumansnyc.com|title=New Humans official|website=New Humans official|publisher=New Humans|accessdate=24 March 2018}}</ref> Collaborators for New Humans performances and projects include Vito Acconci, Charles Atlas, Judith Butler, John Smith and C. Spencer Yeh, among others.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfmoma.org/press/release/sfmomas-live-art-program-presentstoday-is-not-a-d/|title=SFMOMA'S LIVE-ART PROGRAM PRESENTSTODAY IS NOT A DRESS REHEARSAL, BY NEW HUMANS|website=SFMOMA|language=en|access-date=2018-04-30}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://moussemagazine.it/charles-atlas-mika-tajima-the-pedestrians-at-south-london-gallery/|title=Charles Atlas & Mika Tajima: The Pedestrians at South London Gallery, London •Mousse Magazine|website=moussemagazine.it|date=13 April 2011 |language=it-IT|access-date=2018-04-30}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Whitney Biennial 2008|last1=Huldisch|first1=Henriette|last2=Momin|first2=Shamim M.|date=2008-03-28|publisher=The Whitney Museum of American Art|isbn=9780300136890|location=New Haven, Conn.|language=English}}</ref>
==Awards== In 2007 she received an Artadia Award.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artadia.org/artist/mika-tajima/|title=Mika Tajima|website=Artadia|date=3 May 2017 |access-date=2019-06-11}}</ref>
== References == <references />
== External links == *{{Official website|http://mikatajima.com/}} *[http://www.newhumansnyc.com/info.htm New Humans]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tajima, Mika}} Category:Artists from Los Angeles Category:Bryn Mawr College alumni Category:Columbia University School of the Arts alumni Category:1975 births Category:Living people