On my last night in Osaka, I attended the closing night reception for the solo exhibition 置き去られた鏡 The Forsaken Mirror by celebrated artist Chie Matsui 松井智惠. The performance consisted of music by avant-garde musicians sara (piano, perc.) & Shin’ichi Isohata 磯端伸 (guitar) and a poem read in Japanese, Korean, and English by Chie, Yangjah, and Miho, respectively. At first, I didn’t know what to make of the performance or the abstract, brightly colored prints surrounding a centrally hung mirror. Eventually, in the space created by the disorientation and abstraction, I reflected on who these people were, who I was, and the various identities we experience throughout life, which proved enlivening.
KYOTOGRAPHIE KG+ Photographer Group “WOMB” (Masami Ueda, Rino Kawasaki, Kalina Leonard, Sana Kohmoto) 10th Anniversary Exhibition (April 26, 2024)
WOMB photographers Masami Ueda, Rino Kawasaki, Sana Kohmoto, and Kalina Leonard in front of the exhibit of WOMB magazines and photo books at their 10th anniversary exhibition at the Kyoto Museum of Photography I had circled the KYOTOGRAPHIE KG+ Photographer Group...
Asuca Hayashi 林明日香 — Song of the Earth, Tokyo (May 5, 2024)
On a sunny 5th of May — Children’s Day in Japan — I made my way to what seemed like an unlikely venue, Mifa Football Cafe, for a matinee child/family-friendly concert by the J-Pop singer Asuca Hayashi 林明日香. Mifa is located in Toyosu, which is one of a series of...
The Sound of Freedom: Pianist Hitomi Nishiyama at SUB (Osaka, 4/18/24)
After immersing myself in KYOTOGRAPHIE for several days (I’ll have much more to say about it soon!), I took the train to Osaka. Thanks to Japan’s wonderful high-speed trains, it’s actually a quicker commute than it is from the East Village or Brooklyn to the Upper...
KYOTOGRAPHIE KG+ Select: Masahiro Usami’s (宇佐美雅浩) Community Manda-las (April 17, 2024)
On my second day in Kyoto for the KYOTOGRAPHIE Kyoto International Photography Festival, I detoured from the main exhibitions to check out Masahiro Usami (宇佐美雅浩)’s exhibition Manda-la in the KG+ Select show at the Horikawa Oike Gallery. By the time I’d left, I felt I...