Closing Reception & Performance:
Community of Images Exhibition
August 9, 2024, 5-8pm
Philadelphia Art Alliance
Photo courtesy of Roger and Karen Reynolds.
Closing Celebration Friday, August 9, 2024, 5-7pm
(Regular gallery hours 12-5pm that day, Wed-Sat 12-5pm)
Join us in the final hours of the exhibition, Community of Images: Japanese Moving Image Artists in the US, 1960s-1970s, on view at the Philadelphia Art Alliance (251 S 18th St, Philadelphia, PA 19103).
5-7pm Reception
5pm Performance By:
Aaron Pond trio (3rd Floor)
6pm Performance by:
Kuroshio featuring Jason Finkelman, Joy Yang and special guest Geoff Gersh
Beverage provided by CBL Wine Company.
Kuroshio featuring Jason Finkelman, Joy Yang and special guest Geoff Gersh
Jason Finkelman combines laptop electronics and acoustic instrumentation to create a distinct ambient, avant-world sound. A specialist on the single string musical bow berimbau, Finkelman is a Philadelphia-born percussionist who performs on African and Brazilian instruments handcrafted by Adimu Kuumba. His roots in improvised music include founding the trio Straylight in 1992, which enjoyed a wide
range of collaborative performances in the Straylight Dialogues series at the Knitting Factory. Urbana-Champaign-based since 2000, Finkelman performs continually with a host of genre-blurring improvisers, is a community radio host at WEFT 90.1FM and leads the ever-evolving
ensemble Kuroshio, which recently released an eponymous CD on Asian Improv Records (2020). As a composer for dance, Finkelman has collaborated with choreographer Cynthia Oliver for over twenty-three years and received a “Bessie” award as a composer for her full evening work SHEMAD (2000). At the University of Illinois, Finkelman directs Global Arts Performance Initiatives at Krannert Center for the
Performing Arts and leads Improvisers Exchange, a performance ensemble of the School of Music.
Geoff Gersh is a guitarist, composer and improviser based in the NYC area. He explores the sonic boundaries of the electric guitar with and without the aid of electronic devices and found objects to produce sounds one would normally not associate with the guitar. His music moves between the worlds of ambient, drone, improvisation, and experimental music. Geoff also plays and studies the shamisen and dombra. In October of 2023, he spent 2 ½ weeks in Kazakhstan studying the dombra and immersing himself in traditional Kazakh music. Since 2012, he has been performing live scores for silent and non-silent films with the groups Reel Orchestrette, Black Lodge and Order of the Illusive. In that time he has created live scores for over 50 films and has performed at venues in and around NYC such as
Nitehawk Cinema, Film Noir Cinema, Alamo Drafthouse, Proctors Theater, The Linda and Tinker Street Cinema. He has three CDs on Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening Label as well as a number of self released titles under the name Ambient Fields including the latest CD, Ólafsfjörður, released in early 2020. Geoff has received grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Meet the Composer, American Music Center, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and has participated in the Banff Early Fall Musicians in Residence Program (Andres Segovia Memorial Endowment), Banff Winter Musicians in Residence Program (Banff Centre Artists’ Award), Listhus Moving Lights Residency in Olafsfjordur, Iceland and Audiotalia Summer Camp in Barcelona, Spain.
Joy Yang ___ 杨洋 is a dynamic pianist and thereminist anchored in classical music, now focusing on jazz, free improvisation, and interdisciplinary performance. She is a performer-composer and educator. Dr. Yang leads her own jazz trio, and collaborates with international visual artists, video projection mappers, sound designers, dancers, choreographers, scientists, engineers and poets. Joy improvises telematically with the Ethernet Orchestra and Female Laptop Orchestra. Born in South Africa to Chinese parents, Joy spent most of her life in Sydney, Australia before moving to the USA to pursue her graduate studies. She is a native bilingual speaker in English and Mandarin, and fluent in Wenzhounese. Joy has a Doctor of Musical Arts in Jazz Performance (Piano Performance and Literature cognate) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her doctoral interdisciplinary performance research educates the wider community, creating unique performance experiences. Her first CD release was with Kuroshio in 2020, under Asian Improv Records. A third culture kid existing in liminal spaces, Joy continually broadens her musical voice and has released and performed in various styles as a pianist, thereminist, singer, rapper, song-writer and/or producer. These include: The Interdisciples (Interdisciplinary Improv), JIN!WA (Pop), Briar Schlenker Trio (Free Improv/Noise), Valkyrie Trio (Women in Jazz), Almost A (Jazz/Gypsy/New music), UIUC Hip-Hop Collective (Hip-Hop), Boxout (Pop), Lifetime Member (EDM), Media Light Array (Grindcore/Noise), JA$$ (EDM Improv), Avant-Gardians (Free Jazz), and ViolaMPFREE (Interdisciplinary Improv). Yang has received numerous performance-composition commissions, conference presentations and awards, including collaborations with: Jason Finkelman, Amy Hassinger, Dr. Cynthia M. Oliver, Jennifer Monson, Rudolf Haken, David Rosenboom, Maurice Brown and others. Dr. Yang recently founded the Interdisciplinary Institute, which seeks to educate, promote and conduct STEAM+ research. Joy invites the global community to participate on her journey of being and discovering her true self, inspiring them to do the same.
Aaron Pond Trio
Aaron Pond is a musician, concert promoter, and community organizer active in Philadelphia. His improvisational practice is drawn from early atonal music, the playful spirituality of the AACM, and a South Florida childhood spent in synagogues and swamps. His scholarly pursuits center the universal aesthetic structures of spirit possession and the marking power of ritual. Aaron wishes to find himself in the turbulent seas of sensation.
As a performer/thinker he has closely collaborated with Thomas Patteson, Karen Smith, Toshi Makihara, and Dan Blacksberg. He is the President of the People's Music Supply, and damn proud of it.
Naomi Nakanishiis a dynamic pianist, improviser, and composer, currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Their work aims to reconstruct, experiment and interact with sounds influenced by their comprehensive background in Black American Music, indie-folk, and classical piano, inviting listeners with patient lyricism, enticing harmonies, and unconventional phrasing. Recent work includes original film score to Oath of the Sword (2023) as well as their debut EP Hear Me Speak (2022). As a composer and bandleader the essence of their work draws from their experiences as a queer, Asian American musician. Naomi was selected to participate in the 2023 Mutual Mentorship for Musicians Fellowship led by Jen Shyu and Sara Serpa and was commissioned for a duo piece with Angolan singer-songwriter Aline Frazão entitled Mirrored Hands (2023). Naomi is a graduate of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute and Eastman School of Music. They currently lead a piano trio called Whimsy and a bass-less quartet exploring compositions and free improvising. Naomi seeks to continue learning from multigenerational, queer coalitions while curating more culturally rich and interactive experiences in their musical journey.
Melinda Rice is a violinist and songwriter interested in creating space for genuine reaction. Born in Pennsylvania and a graduate of the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts, Melinda returned to Pennsylvania in 2020 after a decade and a half exploring music in southern California.
Among the ensembles Melinda has deeply played, arranged, and/or collaborated with are the Craft in America House Band, A Tribute Ensemble, Isaura String Quartet, Wild Up, The Industry, San Bernardino Symphony, and the Marian Anderson Historical Society. Melinda has released two albums of original works, and wrote the libretto for an opera called Bonnie and Clyde. As an instructor, Melinda has taught at CalArts, developed curriculum in collaboration with the LA Phil, worked with students in the El Sistema-inspired YOLA and Harmony Project programs in Los Angeles from 2008-2022, and led the All City Orchestra of the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra from 2017-2021.
Community of Images: Japanese Moving Image Artists in the US, 1960s-1970s is an exhibition that explores experimental moving images created by Japanese artists and their connections to North America. Covering a wide range of practices including avant-garde film, performance, design, expanded cinema, independent documentary, music, and video art, and addressing themes of ecology, race, feminism, technology, and communication, the project features works and activities that took place in Japan and the US. The selection of works was informed by the interests of, and need for research and preservation by, the community of scholars and collection-holders.
Drawing from the experiences of artists working abroad who are represented in the exhibition, we aim to form connections between historic and contemporary local practices. By collaboratively thinking through these specific artistic practices with Philadelphia-based artists and media-making organizations, we have organized programs that bring this history to life in meaningful ways for today’s audiences. For further information on the exhibition’s overarching themes, and to learn about community engagement projects, please visit our website.
This project is co-presented by Collaborative Cataloging Japan and the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia in partnership with Philadelphia Art Alliance at University of the Arts. 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, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.