Artist Tomoko Sawada Creates a Schoolyard Army of Tomoko Sawadas

Tomoko Sawada's School Days (2004).Courtesy of MEM Inc. and Zabriskie Gallery
Daily Intel recently came across a billboard in Tokyo for a magazine marketing itself toward Gossip Girl fans. Tomoko Sawada — something of the Cindy Sherman of the Tokyo art world, who shoots herself dressed in all manner of traditional Japanese garb — appears to have created the marketing campaign for the anti–Gossip Girl. And our money is riding on Sawada's girls in the next Knowledge Bowl, not to mention the next water-polo world championships. Sawada's work is a part of a show of contemporary Japanese photography and video at the International Center of Photography through September 7. —Emma Pearse