Part of Ibuki’s costume for “Midori” will be made in collaboration with artist Alexandra Carter. The two of them will have an open studio practice leading up to the performance July 31st, August 1st and August 2nd from 5-7pm at Radiant Space. Guests are invited to view the two artists while they transform the space. 

IBUKI KURAMOCHI’s performance “Midori” fuses the beauty and craft of live painting with the soul and rhythm of contemporary Japanese Butoh dance. The term “choreography” is problematic for Butoh. Choreography in the West implies a set sequence of movements. Butoh is very different – timing and movements are improvised.

“Midori” is the Japanese word for “green.”  In this performance, Ibuki will paint using Japanese Matcha powder mixed with water, and also use Japanese sumi ink.

Matcha is symbolic of Japan and also symbolic of nature and purity…

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

IBUKI KURAMOCHI 

Born in Japan, performance artist Ibuki Kuramochi specializes in artworks for exhibition; and also specializes in live performances combining her live painting and her Japanese Butoh dance. She studied Butoh dance at the world-renown Kazuo Ohno Butoh Dance Studio in Yokohama. She has held a deep interest and passion in painting since her childhood when she saw, for the first time, Ikuo Hirayama’s work about Silk Road Art. She works a lot with black and white, which represent the beginning and nothingness. In her paintings, we can find many themes like nature, the animal world in opposition with the human world, and eroticism.

ALEXANDRA CARTER

My work is an exploration of the psyche in the form of painting and drawing influenced by print media, collage, and performance. While riffing on themes of gender, fairytale, and masquerade, I play with the relationship between control and catharsis, visualizing the body coming out of itself, exposing not only one’s guts but one’s internal state–one’s emotions, one’s craziness–in a way that can seem both pleasurable and painful. I draw from my personal background (especially my origins on a cranberry farm in New England) as well as literature, mythology, dance, and costume. My subject matter derives from a large archive of images which I collect and also create from my own performances. Recent interests include expressionist dance movements (specifically German Neuer Tanz and Japanese Butoh), mythological human-animal hybrids, and the words of surrealist artist Unica Zürn. I use alternative media and surfaces to emphasize a visceral mark. The spill of ink on nonporous, translucent drafting film (a.k.a. mylar) refers back to the body permeating beyond its own boundaries. The fluid is juxtaposed with collage elements; using solvents and other transfer methods I directly appropriate reference images from my archive. In recent installations, I suspend works throughout a space, making use of their translucency and presenting them as double-sided paintings that immerse the viewer in their own world. In other series, I paint using cranberry juice, which refers to my background and to the body in an abject narrative. I exploit the staining effect of the juice on antique linens or pillowcases.