About us 
Jennie Tate, Reflections of the Sumida River, collage 2006
Jennie Tate's work for Match Box Friendship Wall & Match Box Gallery
Jennie Tate
(1947- 2007)
Artist, Designer and Filmmaker, Jennie Tate was an AFI (Australian Film Industry) award winning set and costume designer for film and theatre. She had a 20-year association with Japan and its festivals and arts through both professional and personal interest. Jennie was undertaking a Master of Design (Hons) at COFA, UNSW specializing in the Built Environment of Tokyo as well as completing a course in digital imaging. Her expertise in all areas was being culminated in a film exploring and documenting the multiple masks of Tokyo. She exhibited her documentary storyboard explorations with Match Box Projects.
Jennie Tate was one of the first 3 artists we invited to take part in our exchange and create work for Match Box Galleries. She was a true inspiration and her contribution to our project was greatly appreciated and admired. Jennie passed away in late 2007 and will be greatly missed. Jennie created work for the Friendship Wall, a Solo Match Box Gallery, and an interactive installation for Influence Japan. She conducted numerous Match Box artist talks and exchanges, including hosting Tokyo Geidai Students in her home/studio during our Sydney-Tokyo exchange program, and revisiting same on her trip to Tokyo in late 2006.
STATEMENT:
"Reflections On the Sumida River" 1-6 2005-2006 Photographic collage:
These six works are part of a series of "storyboard" for a documentary
exploring and narrating the multiple 'masks' of Tokyo and their
manifestation as complementarities: observing and describing the
shadows and reflections, both actual and metaphorical, on the surface
Omote, and within, the underside Ura. It focuses on the historical
and contemporary topography of the city and its various mappings,
geographic as well as spiritual, political and cultural.
In order to penetrate the mythical, physical and metaphorical
labyrinth of Tokyo, I don't go alone but with a guide. The fox,
simultaneously the messenger to the gods and the trickster, will be my
companion. He is a boundary rider, fast and cunning, moving with ease
within and over the past and present boundaries of the city. The locus
will be the Sumida River the eastern margin of the city, beyond which"… was thought to be the intermediary space between the living and the
dead. It was a privileged space where fox ghosts might appear, even in
daylight…." Masao Yamaguchi 1998
Jennie Tate, 2006
Storyboard 3 Photograph (Hand coloured detail) Chiaki Yoshida from"Yoshitsune Sembonzakura".
Images © Jennie Tate and Match Box Projects
