Ittarikitari - To & Fro

Independent curator Susan Christie provides a special preview of artists’ film work following a research trip to Japan. Shown for the first time in the UK, Japanese artists’ work will be screened alongside work by Scottish artist/​choreographers who share a similarly expansive and playful ethos.

Shown for the first time in the UK, Japanese artists’ work will be screened alongside work by Scottish artist/​choreographers who share a similarly expansive and playful ethos.

‘Japan has endured major events – the great earthquake, the sarin gas attack, the tsunami and nuclear disaster of 2011. The devastating and deeply felt impacts of the tsunami, in particular, have had a fundamental impact on Japanese society and how artists see themselves and their role within community. New artists collectives have been emerging whose work is experimental, radical, surprising and who are making their voices heard through action and performance. It has been incredibly inspiring to witness this and to be able to share with audiences in Scotland.’

An informal discussion will take place during the screenings. Several members of Scottish artists’ collective Soft Shadows will introduce their own work and touch briefly upon why the selected Japanese work makes for especially compelling viewing.

The Ittarikitari programme features improvised performance, action, martial arts and dance. The artists’ approaches will intrigue dance audiences, as well as appeal to people who are passionate about our place and relationship with the environment.

This programme marks a new chapter in artistic exchange between Scotland and Japan.

Programme:

Introduction by curator, Susan Christie, 5 mins

contact Gonzo, Rokkou Mountain, 2016, SD video, 11 min 16 sechyslom, Documentation of Hysteresis, 2017, SD video, 26 min

Intro to work by Robbie Synge for 8 mins

Robbie Synge, selection of work by ​‘Julie & Robbie’, 2017, HD video, 10 minsChim↑Pom, KI-AI 100 (100 Cheers), 2011, SD video, 10 min 30 secAndy Ayaka Yamamoto, I can’t say goodbye, 2018, SD video, 1 min 40 sec; Eternal Story, 2017, SD video, 3 min 23 sec; Sugar Skin, 2018, SD video, 2 min 20 secEmma Dove, Ittarikitari, 2019 (work in progress), HD video, 5 min

Outro with Emma Dove, 5 mins

Programme duration: 90 min

Founded in 2006, contact Gonzo is an improvisational performance group based in Osaka, Japan. The collective has developed a specific mode of contact improvisation that borrows from various sources including martial arts. Their practice involves physical strength and agility, and relies upon the trusting relationships within the group. contact Gonzo balances elements of contemporary dance and performance, and creates highly experimental and unexpected work that surprises and amazes audiences.

hyslom (Itaru Kato, Fuminori Hoshino, Yuu Yoshida) is a three-member collective that has spent the last 10 years regularly exploring a particular landscape, which has become a large-scale housing site, to document and interact with the changes that have been taking place. Their work is highly physical and often surprising; they use their bodies in unexpected locations and in challenging ways to maintain a deep connection with the land.

Julie Cleves (London) and Robbie Synge’s (Highlands) practice and friendship investigates the possibilities of sharing time in different spaces together, over-coming disability access issues with proactive and novel DIY design solutions. Founded ten years ago in dance studio-based research around the possibilities of moving together on the floor, they soon became bored of the studio confines and took their practice into the public realm. Their adventurous spirit and highly visible performed actions seek to enable new personal shared experiences and to feed into overlapping discourses around access, design, cooperation and embodied actions and solutions.

Chim↑Pom is an artist collective formed in 2005 in Tokyo with members Ryuta Ushiro, Yasutaka Hayashi, Ellie, Masataka Okada, Motomu Inaoka, and Toshinori Mizuno. Several weeks after the tsunami of 2011, members of Chim↑Pom travelled to Fukushima. With young fishermen from the local community, they made an improvised performance KAI-AI 100 (100 Cheers).Ki-ai is a martial arts term for a shout that is used to focus energy and breath before an attack. This filmed action symbolises the way Chim↑Pomrespond to situations with urgency, humour and warmth.

Andy Ayaka Yamamoto lives with her grandfather (92) who has dementia. Contemplating his forgotten memories, she created a series of film and installation-based works which were presented in Koganecho Bazaar art festival, Yokohama during 2018. In this work Yamamoto delicately applies a process of ​‘sugar preservation’ to her grandfather’s face and to second-handbooks. This material acts to preserve but also to conceal what’s underneath. Although she tells her grandfather his own story through the work, it has become an unrecognisable world for him. Born Kanagawa Prefecture in 1992, Yamamoto focuses on emotional interactions between herself and others, attempting to visualise their invisible forms, movements, scents and sounds.

Emma Dove makes films and installations, collaborating with artists, musicians, academics and scientists. ​‘Hidden stories’ are at the core of her work with a current research interest in cross-cultural death practices and taboos.From October to November 2018, Emma joined Susan Christie on a British Council supported research trip to Japan. They met and recorded with artists and academics working around the themes of the body, feminism, natural disaster and mortality. Fundraising is underway to develop this material, undertake additional interviews in Scotland to make a film and podcast series. Emma will screen a short taster of early work-in-progress.