That's a Wrap! Reflection on Community of Images
Ann Adachi-Tasch
Closing reception, August 9, 2024. Photograph by Erin Blewett.
Now that September has rolled in, we are now taking time to reflect on the amazing summer with the Community of Images project, complete with the documentations!
This project started in summer of 2022 when we received the news that CCJ, with Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia received a grant from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage to mount the exhibition Community of Images: Japanese Moving Image Artists in the US, 1960s—1970s. Since then our team has steadily developed the project, resulting in new research and preservation projects, the exhibition at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, community partnership programs, a new commission of contemporary video letter exchange, online programs, and a public art installation at the Oval.
Then back in June, one week before our opening date, we first got word that University of the Arts was shutting its doors, including those belonging to the exhibition’s location, the Philadelphia Art Alliance. At that time, installation was already 80% finished, but we didn’t know if the show would be allowed to open the following week. Years of work had gone into the curation and compilation of this groundbreaking collection of works. We truly didn’t know if the show would go on.
It was a moment that called for resilience. And creativity. And, of course, community. Through the passionate advocacy of CCJ and its partners, a solution was found. As long as we still had access to the space, we would take on everything ourselves — staffing, maintenance, security — to make sure that the our audiences would have the chance to experience these innovative works.
But, of course, we also needed you. We needed you to show up, which you did. We needed your financial support via an impromptu GoFundMe to keep the lights on. And we needed you to help spread the word. Thank you.
Just because the exhibition is closed, doesn’t mean the story is over. Many of these pieces will find permanent homes in museum collections (details below!). And if you’d like to learn more about the artists and the context in which they worked, our website has a trove of profiles, interviews, and archival documents.
Our core mission, preservation, was the main goal in the project. The following works and materials were digitized, reconstructed, or preserved, and they are in the process of finding permanent archival homes. Selected digitizations will be available for Members Viewing in the coming months so stay tuned!
Seiichi Fujii, Body Wave, 1970, 16mm film transferred to digital video, double projection, 35 min, b/w and color, sound.
Installation view of Body Wave. Photograph by Constance Mensh
Takahiko Iimura, Shelter 9999, 1966–1968, thirty-one color slides transferred to digital. (Takahiko Iimura collection)
Takaiko Iimura, photographs, digitized. (Takahiko Iimura collection)
Takahiko Iimura, Shelter 9999, 16mm film transferred to digital video, 28:09 min. (Takahiko Iimura collection)
Takahiko Iimura, Shelter 9999, three 16mm films transferred to digital, 9:28 min total. (Alvin Lucier Papers at the New York Public Library)
Installation view of Shelter 9999. Photo by Constance Mensh.
Shigeko Kubota, Video Talk Show, 1977 (with Suzanne Delehanty and Gerald O'Leary, March 23, 1977; and David Ross, Barbara London, John Hanhardt, and Jonathan Price, December 18, 1977). Standard-definition video, b/w, sound. Courtesy of the Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation.
Installation view of Video Talk Show. Photograph by Albert Yee.
Shigeko Kubota, Confession, Janice (#144), Standard-definition video
Shigeko Kubota, Norie, Garden Satellite for Window (#257), 1976
Michael Goldberg, Reel 1 "Seiichi Fujii" and "Ichiro Hagiwara" 01:00 - 17:58 (the Kite performance)
Michael Goldberg, Reel 2 "Tokyo Kid Brothers"
Michael Goldberg, Reel 3 "Dabu Dabo" and "Gann (Tetsuo) Matsushita"
Michael Goldberg, Reel 4 "Terry Reid" + Katsuhiro Yamaguchi's EAT performance
Michael Goldberg, Reel 5 "Seiichi Fujii" and "Takamichi Sugiyama" 22:58
Installation view of the Micheal Goldberg collection digitization (on monitor). Photo by Constance Mensh.
Ko Nakajima, Liquid Projector (Ryūdōtai Purojekutā), 1969 [2024 reconstruction]
Installation view of Liquid Projector. Photograph by Constance Mensh.
Ko Nakajima, Documentation of Osaka Expo ’70, 1970, 16mm film transferred to digital video
Installation view of Ko Nakajima's Expo '70 documentation and Shikotsuki photograph. Photograph by Constance Mensh.
Ko Nakajima, Mao Zedong, 16mm film transferred to digital video
Ko Nakajima, Shadow, 16mm film transferred to digital video
Ko Nakajima, Photograph of Shikotsuki Object