The cover of this issue of Artkrush is a detail of Tomoko Sawada's photograph School Days/E, which is currently on view in the Brooklyn Museum's Global Feminisms exhibition. At first glance, School Days/E, part of the artist's larger School Days series, seems to be a class photograph of uniform individuals with playful differentiations, such as a rebellious girl's shorter skirt. However, like most of Sawada's photographs, the bevy of girls consists only of the artist's digital clones.

Born in 1977 in Kobe, Japan, Sawada graduated from the Seian University of Art and Design and quickly found success locally and abroad. In 2004, she received the Kimura Ihei Memorial Photography Award as well as the International Center of Photography Infinity Award for a Young Photographer. Represented by Zabriskie Gallery in New York, she has participated in shows across the US, Europe, and Asia.

Throughout Sawada's career, she has focused on her own face and its endless permutations. Her many series explore ritualized identities and the superficial qualities that define perceptions of personality. OMIAI from 2001 takes on the practice of arranged marriages in Japan, with Sawada mimicking the staged photographs popularly used for promotional "trading cards" and posing as a variety of potential brides. As in School Days, the photographer plays with uniforms and wardrobe, and she ranges from a properly kimonoed young lady to a businesswoman, an old maid, and a coquette. A true shapeshifter in the tradition of Cindy Sherman, Sawada has become one of Asia's most notable female artists with her wry challenges to the absurdities of social norms. (LM)