PLACENESS | An Art Exhibition in Nagoya, Japan

From March 11-May 7, my video and interactive artworks will be on show at the alternative art space Q SO-KO in Nagoya, Japan. The exhibition, entitled PLACENESS, is a collaborative project with the Japanese artist Hiraki Sawa and Q SO-KO. For my part, I talked to Southeast Asians who live in Nagoya, recorded them talking about their experiences and feelings towards being in Japan, and transformed their voices into abstract visual motions. It’s part of a larger, hopefully long-term project I call “Echolocation,” an attempt to translate verbal communication to abstract visualization. So, the videos for PLACENESS are from “Echolocation: Southeast Asians in Nagoya” series. There should be more Echolocation series in the future.

In 2004, I was among four curators selected by the Japan Foundation to work on a group exhibition in Tokyo that was given the title Have We Met? It was then that I became aware of Hiraki Sawa’s work. He was considered a very new face and a rising star at the time (he told me recently that it was his first show in Japan). I don’t remember meeting him at the opening of the show, but it’s such a delightful coincidence that now, 19 years later, our paths have crossed again, and in a much more meaningful way. I’m grateful for this opportunity.

There will be a talk session/book launch with Hiraki Sawa and myself on March 11, from 15:00-16:30 p.m. at Q SO-KO. More more information please go to the website.