You may not know the name, but there is a good chance you know the face. As Clara Bow, Greta Garbo and Twiggy were iconic of their times, Sayoko Yamaguchi was everywhere in the 1970s. Even if you weren't a dedicated follower of fashion, it would have been difficult to avoid her cool gaze, which appeared in magazines, TV and film, on album covers and as a shop-front mannequin all over the world. It is not an overstatement to say that for years Yamaguchi's face and style were almost synonymous with contemporary Japanese womanhood and femininity outside of Japan.
A career as a model, however illustrious and notable, would not necessarily merit someone being the focus of an exhibition at a museum of contemporary art, but Yamaguchi went on to do and be many other things.
"Sayoko Yamaguchi: The Wearist, Clothed in the Future" is reminiscent of the premise of "Citizen Kane" in its exploration of Yamaguchi as an enigma. It presents personal ephemera such as old vinyl 45s, books, toys and dolls, before taking us along a meandering path that depicts a life full of creative experimentation. The abrupt end of that life in 2007, when Yamaguchi died of pneumonia at the age of 57, was met with sadness and reminiscences from all the different worlds in which she moved: fashion, of course; but also the theater, butoh, photography, cosmetics and design.