Video Letter Exchange: Community of Images
As part of the “Community of Images” exhibition, join us on Friday, July 19, 2024, at Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia, for an outdoor screening event and the premiere of a work by four contemporary video artists commissioned to highlight the video letter exchange format that accompanied the rise of video as an expressive medium examined in the “Community of Images” exhibition.
Friday, July 19, 2024
8:00–10:00pm
Bartram’s Garden
5400 Lindbergh Boulevard, Philadelphia / Google Maps >>
Admission to this program is FREE and open to the public.
Advance ticket reservations are requested. Reserve Tickets >>
This program is presented as part of the upcoming exhibition “Community of Images: Japanese Moving Image Artists in the US, 1960s–1970s” which will take place June 14–August 9, 2024, at the Philadelphia Art Alliance. Visit the Exhibition Website >>
Program Description
To highlight the video letter exchange format that accompanied the rise of video as an expressive medium examined in the “Community of Images” exhibition, Collaborative Cataloging Japan and Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia commissioned a group of four contemporary video artists to produce a present-day video letter exchange. This commission is a nod to Video Letter (1983), a remarkable 64-minute compilation of the exchange of video letters between video artists Shuji Terayama and Shuntaro Tanikawa. The contemporary exchange is led by Philadelphia-based artist Nadia Hironaka, who organized an exchange with US and Japan-based artists Shinpei Takeda (San Diego), Hikaru Suzuki (Tokyo), and Yu Araki (Kyoto).
The resulting work by the four artists—in which videos were shared anonymously during the exchange that took place between February–May 2024—will be premiered along with the original Video Letter from 1983 as part of cinéSPEAK’s outdoor summer screening series at Bartram’s Garden.
Before the screening, Philadelphia-based Japanese-Taiwanese artist Eiko Fan will present a Live Wood Sculpture performance.
Acknowledgments
This program is co-organized by cinéSPEAK, Collaborative Cataloging Japan and Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia.
“Community of Images” is co-presented by Collaborative Cataloging Japan and Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia. Major support has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Toshiba International Foundation, Pola Art Foundation, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Philadelphia Cultural Fund, and Japan Foundation.