April 15–19: First rainbows
虹始見/にじはじめてあらわる/Niji hajimete arawaru
虹始見/にじはじめてあらわる/Niji hajimete arawaru
Emerging from a long period of collective grieving and healing, Marina Fukushima’s multimedia, intergenerational dance performance Memento Forest — katami connects with the sensibility of the micro-season First Rainbows (虹始見). This project follows Marina’s previous performance, Relative Audience, dedicated to the 58th micro-season, Rainbows Hide (虹蔵不見).
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MEMENTO FOREST — katami ( 形見 )
by MARINA FUKUSHIMA Presented by U.S./Japan Cultural Trade Network June 5-6, 8pm at NOHSpace Memento Forest — katami, a new multi-media dance performance directed by Marina Fukushima nurtures the connections with loved ones after they have passed away through the objects, memories, people, and places that were left behind. The project invests in Japanese and Asian American communities, a sense of family, and intergenerational relationships. As grieving processes in Japan are often both personal and communal through various rituals and practices, the creative outlet of collaboration and performance serves as a grieving process, enriching communal acts of sharing, and collective healing. The project reflects on Marina Fukushima’s personal process of grieving after her father, Hiroki Fukushima, passed away in August 2024. As memento “Katami (形見)” in Japanese, constructed by two words “shape” and “to see”, the work seeks to perceive traces that conjure who he was as a father, grandfather, husband, Japanese immigrant, metal sculptor, and transnational artist. The multi-media creation incorporates video of Hiroki’s art studio in Yokohama in 2021, his last two trips to the oceanside in Mie, Japan in 2021 and 2024, and various places in Japan and the Bay Area. Another segment features family and landscape drawings by Michiko Fukushima. Also, the work includes video, photography, and audio from a series of intergenerational workshops entitled Memento Archive - First Rainbows at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC) and Kokoro Assisted Living. These collective processes informed a layered multimedia environment integrating movement, video, photography, and sound. Reflecting on a continuity and ephemerality of life and family, Memento Forest — katami cultivates a sense of lightness through the journey, opening layers of release and renewed communal relations. |
Photo credit: Isak Immanuel
Artistic direction, choreography, video, performance: Marina Fukushima
Scenography, video, archive process: Isak Immanuel
Mementos, metal sculpture, appearance for video: Hiroki Fukushima
Drawing, performance for video: Michiko Fukushima
House technician: Wolfie Lewandowski
Memento archive collaborations for video: Community participants from the Memento Archive Workshop - First Rainbows, including:
Denise Teraoka, Goshi Kogure, Raymond Fong, Genny Lim, Olivia Ting, Josephine Tan, Lenora Lee, Isak Immanuel, Miwa Kaneko, Kyoko Yoshida, and residents of Kokoro Assisted Living
Videography/edit:
Opening memento forest, Michiko drawing, “Memento Archive Workshop - First Rainbows”, forest and ocean: Isak Immanuel
Hiroki’s art studio in Yokohama, Hiroki’s last two trips to Mie, Japan, Michiko at Zenpukuji Park: Marina Fukushima
Music:
Monologue by Aiko Takahashi
Distorted Shapes by City Of Dawn
Appanihita by James Murray & Mike Lazarev
Night Catalog (夜のカタログ) by Stilllife
Presented by: U.S./Japan Cultural Trade Network, Inc. (CTN)
Co-presented by: Theatre of Yugen, Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, and Asian Improv aRts
Scenography, video, archive process: Isak Immanuel
Mementos, metal sculpture, appearance for video: Hiroki Fukushima
Drawing, performance for video: Michiko Fukushima
House technician: Wolfie Lewandowski
Memento archive collaborations for video: Community participants from the Memento Archive Workshop - First Rainbows, including:
Denise Teraoka, Goshi Kogure, Raymond Fong, Genny Lim, Olivia Ting, Josephine Tan, Lenora Lee, Isak Immanuel, Miwa Kaneko, Kyoko Yoshida, and residents of Kokoro Assisted Living
Videography/edit:
Opening memento forest, Michiko drawing, “Memento Archive Workshop - First Rainbows”, forest and ocean: Isak Immanuel
Hiroki’s art studio in Yokohama, Hiroki’s last two trips to Mie, Japan, Michiko at Zenpukuji Park: Marina Fukushima
Music:
Monologue by Aiko Takahashi
Distorted Shapes by City Of Dawn
Appanihita by James Murray & Mike Lazarev
Night Catalog (夜のカタログ) by Stilllife
Presented by: U.S./Japan Cultural Trade Network, Inc. (CTN)
Co-presented by: Theatre of Yugen, Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, and Asian Improv aRts
MARINA FUKUSHIMA (artistic direction, choreography, video, performance) is a multidisciplinary dance artist based in San Francisco. Born in Tokyo, Japan, she immigrated to the US in 1992. From a cross-cultural perspective, her creative focus is on the themes of silence, family, and intergenerational relationships. Since 2015, she has been developing a Family Project series in primary collaboration with her parents (both visual artists). Also, in collaboration with Isak Immanuel, numerous somatic-based workshops inclusive to seniors, youth, and non dancers have been created. In San Francisco and internationally, she has performed with numerous dance companies including KUNST STOFF, Epiphany Productions, ODC, Lenora Lee Dance, and Tableau Stations. Various collaborative works have been supported by California Arts Council, Zellerbach Family Foundation, NOHspace, San Francisco Arts Commission, and Little Tokyo Service Centerʼs +LAB AIR.
ISAK IMMANUEL (scenography, video, archive process) is an interdisciplinary artist engaging questions of precarity, presence, and a sense of place. Numerous multimedia dance performances, videos, and installations have been created in museums, theaters, and urban and rural environments. He is the artistic director of the intercultural arts platform Tableau Stations, active in the SF Bay Area and nomadically. Supported in part by the Japan-US Friendship Commission, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Akiyoshidai International Art Village, Attakkalari India Biennial, and Headlands Center for the Arts.
HIROKI FUKUSHIMA (Mementos, metal sculpture, appearance for video) was a Japanese metal artist and Marina Fukushima’s father. Born in Yamaguchi, Japan (1948 - 2024). He worked primarily with iron, copper, and aluminum to create free-standing and hanging sculptures and functional objects since 1972. In 2012, Hiroki immigrated to the U.S. to continue his artistic explorations in the new environment. He worked and taught blacksmithing at the Crucible in Oakland. His sculptures are currently exhibited at Gallery Japonesque in San Francisco. He received B.F.A in Crafts and M.F.A in Metal Hammering from Tokyo University of the Arts.
MICHIKO FUKUSHIMA (drawing, performance for video) is a visual artist and Marina Fukushima’s mother. She immigrated to the U.S. in 2012 to expand her artistic exploration in drawing, porcelain, and ceramic works. Her recent works incorporate different mediums and explore China Painting on porcelain objects and sculptures. She works and teaches China Painting at the Crucible in Oakland.
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Memento Forest — Katami is supported in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC), and Kokoro Assisted Living.
ISAK IMMANUEL (scenography, video, archive process) is an interdisciplinary artist engaging questions of precarity, presence, and a sense of place. Numerous multimedia dance performances, videos, and installations have been created in museums, theaters, and urban and rural environments. He is the artistic director of the intercultural arts platform Tableau Stations, active in the SF Bay Area and nomadically. Supported in part by the Japan-US Friendship Commission, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Akiyoshidai International Art Village, Attakkalari India Biennial, and Headlands Center for the Arts.
HIROKI FUKUSHIMA (Mementos, metal sculpture, appearance for video) was a Japanese metal artist and Marina Fukushima’s father. Born in Yamaguchi, Japan (1948 - 2024). He worked primarily with iron, copper, and aluminum to create free-standing and hanging sculptures and functional objects since 1972. In 2012, Hiroki immigrated to the U.S. to continue his artistic explorations in the new environment. He worked and taught blacksmithing at the Crucible in Oakland. His sculptures are currently exhibited at Gallery Japonesque in San Francisco. He received B.F.A in Crafts and M.F.A in Metal Hammering from Tokyo University of the Arts.
MICHIKO FUKUSHIMA (drawing, performance for video) is a visual artist and Marina Fukushima’s mother. She immigrated to the U.S. in 2012 to expand her artistic exploration in drawing, porcelain, and ceramic works. Her recent works incorporate different mediums and explore China Painting on porcelain objects and sculptures. She works and teaches China Painting at the Crucible in Oakland.
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Memento Forest — Katami is supported in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC), and Kokoro Assisted Living.
