Exhibiting in Gallery Three.
Born in 1978, Kyoto.
Organiser and social activist.
Sakiko Sugawa is a founding member of hanare and Social Kitchen in Kyoto and is an independent director/organizer of cultural and educational programs. She also conducts media art projects that are connected with social and political issues.
International Conference on Reconstruction of Japan (ICRJ)
Taking place over 4 nights at PICA, Sakikio Sugawa (JPN), in collaboration with San Francisco-based artist, Keith Pasko and Perth-based social activist and artistic director, Sam Fox of Hydra Poesis, will present a series of dinners concerning the Tohoku-Kanto earthquake and tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster.
International Conference on Reconstruction of Japan (ICRJ) was conceived in response to the simultaneous natural and man-made disasters that devastated northern Japan- the earthquake/tsunami that displaced thousands from their homes, and the still-ongoing Fukushima nuclear power plant catastrophe that has contaminated vast areas around Fukushima.
ICRJ organizes a series of conferences, both in Japan and abroad, with experts discussing a wide range of reconstruction ideas and hopes.
Unlike the mega reconstruction conferences held for the countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Haiti, led mostly by powerful business and politics, ICRJ uses an intimate and small 'dinner' format for each conference hoping not to miss out on small or quiet voices. These 'Dinner parties' will be documented and live streamed through the website, and investigate the concepts and roles of public vs private, performance and its documentation, and (mis)information.
Given that Japan, in its current crisis, and many other nations lie at a social and economic crossroads, and yet too often leave little hope for the voicing of concerns save from those of the wealthy or influential, such small-scale discussion and documentation, from within the mists of technological anonymity, can serve as a 'knot in the tree' into which vague and unheard hopes for change and a different future are purposefully or unconsciously, communally or individually whispered. This is of particular contemporary interest as more traditional forums for dialogue and dissent, 'business as usual' fail and fall flat. There exists a long historical precedent of the dinner party as a site for social engineering, confirming or establishing community (based on profession, 'family', class, race, etc); celebration (and thus, celebrating common bonds); or more darkly, as a formal occasion for politicking and social inclusion/exclusion, or for 'making deals'. Working within such a context aims to blur the distinction between producer and consumer (chef and diner), and shift/subvert norms and roles of a dinner/diner. Particularly, the handling of the devastating crises has revealed the injustice of Japanese social structure (a structure at once evident and expressed in its dining customs), and shows a skewed version of that fundamental economic exchange of purchasing survival. Can the inversion/subversion of such norms in individual contexts such as a dinner be propagated and resonated to redirect the social flow? How can these notions be echoed, translated, or altered further through a technological/virtual/mediated interface?
The interest in documentation and archiving through such an interface stems from a fascination and importance placed upon the notions of detritus/decay/residue/disappearance inherent in consuming, both gastronomically, economically, and technologically. Examining both the material and social 'leftovers', or bits thrown away, tossed aside, flown under the radar, or ignored, is of particular interest to the project. The video and text documentation proposed are natural extensions of these notions into linguistic and media contexts; particularly, we aim to explore the textual echoes and remainders of experience preserved via blogs/facebook/twitter- hearsay, word of mouth, speculation, myth and both their positive and negative repercussions, especially at such a time when even 'official' information takes on these qualities.
Collaborators:
Miles Ake (Notch), Kenichiro Egami, Kim Song Gi, Fuminori Hoshino, Kohei Kuwagaki, Yui Matsuda, Kaoru Matsumoto, Naoki Matsuyama, Yumi Miki, Anne Sorenson, Wataru Sano, Song Kyo Sung, Soung Hyo Ryu, Hiroyasu Takahashi Yuka Takahashi, Ryu Young Jin,
Special Thanks:
Space TONG, AGIT, CIA Perth
This project has been supported in Perth by
Please come along to the ICRJ Public Dinner: Japanese Society, Australian Society on Tuesday 22 November at 6pm.
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