AMI YAMASAKI / MICHAEL SMITH-WELCH

SURFACE
A site-specific installation / performance



“If light can thus deceive, wherefore not life?” - Joseph Blanco White

Linked to the world by light, the world comes to us by way of reflection and shadow. Through installation and performance, artist/vocalist Ami Yamasaki appears as Kōshi* (光子, or “Photon”), a fragment of light making its way through the world. Playing with space, movement, and voice, SURFACE depicts the life of Kōshi, exploring Kōshi’s paradoxical nature as both particle and wave and revealing the outer world not as something superficial, but as something to be embraced and celebrated. SURFACE chronicles the life of Kōshi through experimentation and play.

The mhProject performances (Fridays, Saturdays) amplify reflecting light and voice to reveal meaning in a world of appearances. In a special set of follow-up Sunday performances (invite-only, location TBA), the birth of Kōshi is revealed through explorations with shadow. Join us early at mhProject for some social time and some experiments with light.

SURFACE I: reflection
January 12, 13, 19, 10
7pm and 8pm

SURFACE II: shadow
January 14, 21
7:30 – 8pm

AMI YAMASAKI is a vocalist and multimedia artist from Tokyo. Her work is diverse and prolific, creating installations, performances, and films in a variety of settings, most recently as part of the performance “Sounds to Summon the Japanese Gods” at the Japan Society of New York. Solo performances include “Signs of Voices” (2016, Kyoto Art Center, Japan), “Voice, Boundary, Gravity”(2017, Cathy Weis Project),“Experimental Intermedia 2017”(played with Yasunao Tone, curated by Phill Niblock). She has participated in numerous group shows, including “Tokyo Experimental Festival 9” (2014, Tokyo Wonder Site, Japan), “Exchange-planting a seed” (2013, Aomori Contemporary Art center, Japan) and “Sonic City 2013 Liquid Architecture” (2013, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia).  She frequently collaborates, working with Keiji Haino, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Yasunao Tone. She has lead workshops at The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan, Arts Maebashi, and Sapporo City Kojo School, as well as a variety of television and film appearances, including narration and voice for “MORIBITO Ⅱ” (NHK, 2017) and Hayao Miyazaki’s latest short film, Ghibli (2017). She presented at TEDx Tokyo in 2016. Currently she is a 2017 Asian Cultural Council fellow based in New York City.

http://amingerz.wixsite.com/ami-yamasaki


MICHAEL SMITH-WELCH is a transdisciplinary artist interested in materials and environments that inspire playful experimentation and iterative design. He works with a range of materials, including electronics, computation, mechanics, light, sound, music, video, wood and cardboard. A former research assistant at MIT’s Media Lab, Michael currently designs environments and public engagement programs at the Hirshhorn Museum, the Smithsonian’s museum of contemporary art in Washington, DC. He is also a founding member of RhizomeDC, an experimental art, learning and culture/performance space in Washington, DC.

http://deviceofmind.net