Michio Okabe

Michio Okabe (1937-2020) began his activities as an artist in the mid-1960s, participating in the contemporary artist group Off Museum. He interacted with groups such as Neo-Dada and Hi Red Center, as well as artists like Ushio Shinohara, and presented at Yomiuri Independent exhibition (1964), Big Fight exhibition (1965), a solo exhibition at Naiqua Gallery (1965), as well as street performances.

Influenced by Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising (1963), Okabe made his first film work Tenchi Sozosetsu (creation tale, 1965), which received a prize at the Sogetsu experimental film festival. Thereafter he made Crazy Love (1968), Camp (1970), Shiroyo Dokoe Iku (Shiro, where are you going, 1970), Shonen Shiko (1973, won a grand prize at Knokke-le-Zoute International Film Festival), Saijiki (1973), and Kaisoroku (1977).

The works that sublimate Susan Sontag’s thinking on camp into Okabe’s original camp aesthetic, have been highly received and have screened in Japan and abroad. Besides film production, Okabe published fantastical short stories through reading programs on radio, magazines, fantasy literature anthologies, as well as his own book. Okabe passed away in September, 2020.