Bible and Dildo
In conjunction with Pride Amsterdam 2019, Foam presents the work of Momo Okabe (1981, Japan) from the museum's collection.

The photos are a selection from the series Bible and Dildo, which tell the story of Okabe’s lovers and their struggles with gender dysphoria, identity disorders and social isolation. In Dildo, Okabe documents relationships with Kaori, a woman with gender dysphoria, and Yoko, a lover she followed to Thailand during gender reassignment surgery. The series title, Dildo, refers to how, for some transgender people, a dildo can represent a body part transgender people may or may not ever actually have.


Untitled, from the series Bible, 2008-2014 © Momo Okabe

Bible expresses impressions of the complexity of the lives of Okabe’s friends and lovers dealing with issues of gender identity and social isolation. Okabe juxtaposes images of underground Tokyo nightlife and her own community’s vulnerability, with the destruction wrought by the heavy earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 2011.

ABOUT MOMO OKABE
Momo Okabe received a BFA in Photography from Nihon University of Art in 2004. In 1999 her work was selected by Nobuyoshi Araki for the prestigious New Cosmos of Photography Award and in 2015 she won the Foam Paul Huf Award. The same year, the solo exhibition Bible and Dildo was presented at Foam and works from the series became part of the museum’s collection. Her photobooks Dildo and Bible are published by Session Press. Raised in France, she lives and works in Tokyo.

Visit and revisit Momo Okabe - Bible and Dildo, other exhibitions and events as a Foam Member.

Foam is supported by the BankGiro Loterij, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, City of Amsterdam, Foam Members, Olympus and the VandenEnde Foundation.

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Bible and Dildo