Artist Talk with Satoru Abe

Talk Event

March 18, 2023

Join exhibiting artist Satoru Abe in this special talk event, held as part of the OH!Bento exhibition at The Japan Foundation, Sydney. Abe will discuss his life’s work, a collection of photographs titled Hiruke (Lunchtime), for which he travelled around Japan and captured portraits of people eating homemade bento boxes. He will also discuss the inspiration behind his photography practice, as well as the OH!Bento exhibition.

Following the talk, attendees will have the opportunity to ask Abe questions.

Please note the talk will be conducted in both Japanese and English, with the assistance of an interpreter. The in-person talk event will also be available to view online via livestream on the JPF Sydney Facebook page.

About the Artist

SATORU ABE

Born in Tokyo in 1963, Satoru Abe spent four years aboard the weather ship Keifu Maru as an engineer after graduating from the National Tateyama Maritime Polytechnical School. Later on, Abe discovered photography while traveling through Europe on the Trans-Siberian Railway Network. He studied photography at Tokyo Polytechnic University, and after working as an assistant to photographer Yoshihiro Tachiki, Abe became a freelance photographer in 1995. His works include Square Universe, in which he photographed friends in their rooms. From 2011 he also appeared on the NHK television series Sarameshi (Lunch ON!) as a bento box hunter. Abe is also the author of Obentо̄ no Jikan (Lunchtime), a series of four volumes that has been published in Taiwan, France, South Korea and China. Other works of his include Hiruke (Lunchtime) and Tokyo Shopkeeper Couples.