Tea Ceremony III (1994)
In this digitally manipulated Cibachrome print, Mariko stands on the sidewalk dressed as a secretarial space alien in a navy blue dress and white wig, mechanically serving tea to passing businessmen (you can see a larger version of all the images on the left by clicking on them). Her expression is smiling yet blank, to the point of seeming superficial. Michael Cohen suggests that this "wide-eyed Manga cutie conjures an image of unreal sexuality; non-organic, fluidless, bloodless - a robot" (Cohen 1997).
Subway (1994)
In Subway, Mariko, dressed head to toe in a metallic silver spacesuit, looks like an alien just landed on earth and appears to be checking data on her wrist piece. Surrounding her are business men and women on their way home from work - they pay little attention to the cyborg or each other; they appear to be each lost in a world of their own.
Warrior (1994)
Clad in a black vinyl catsuit, a space commando helmet, and brandishing a rather powerful looking machine gun, Mariko is ready to strike among the glittering arcade games and young obsessive players - known in Japan as the Otaku. Although she no doubt fulfils the adolescent boys' fantasies, once again, the mechanical cyberfem appears cut-off from the world around her.
Love Hotel (1994)
Dressed in a typical Japanese school uniform and a skin-tight silver body stocking (like the one worn in Tea Ceremony III), a school girl cyborg, bounces on the bed of a Tokyo Love Hotel. The room is an example of one in which certain Japanese businessmen (only those with a 'Lolita complex') wait, hoping to arrange a date, meet for dinner and occasionally pay for sex with high school girls who have called Telekura - a popular kind of telephone club (Mori interviewed by Dike Blair 1995).
Red Light (1994)
Here Mariko plays the role of a cyborg sex worker parading the streets of Tokyo's red light district. The chromogenic development of the floor-to-ceiling Fujicolor print captures the neon colours of the red-light landscape. Mariko is again outfitted in her silver body stocking, this time covering it only slightly in a hot pink mini-dress with matching nail varnish and silver shoes to match her silver metal ears. The sheborg prostitute appears to call the voyeur on her cell-phone and, flashing her shiny metallic legs, entices him to join her.
Play With Me (1995)
As the title suggests, the anime-esque cyberfem who inhabits the picture plane in Play With Me again appears to invite the audience into the video arcade. She stands with her head invitingly tilted to one side, and waits patiently for a response. She is the only female surrounded by passing male customers, however, like the younger generation in Warrior, they fail to acknowledge their computer game fantasy in the flesh - short plastic skirt, metallic bodice, elbow length black and cyan gloves and aqua hair launching itself from her head like two alien-like feelers.
Birth of a Star (1995)
This work is a life-size Duratrans print that is mounted on a lightbox and illuminated from behind. Strange technopop music emanates from the photograph and the work could be said to be a prediction of Mariko's own imminent fame. Another self-portrait, only this time Mariko is dressed as a sort of plastic blow-up doll wearing a vinyl tartan skirt much like that of a schoolgirl, oversized headphones and holding a remote control device. Again, we are confronted with a (some what disturbing) sense of plastic sexuality, but perhaps more obvious in this work is the way in which we are asked to question the relationship between fashion and the art world - remember, Mariko's experience in the fashion industry was what first inspired her art work. We can also see how the earlier cyberfems have begun to transform into more alien-like creatures.