Kala Auction 2021
February 22nd, 2021I am donating this study piece with bars of burnt redwood which back side is painted with fluorescent red/pink.
I wrote the lyrics of this album
December 5th, 2020
This album was produced being inspired by Milan Kundera’s “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.” All written in Japanese. Sorry if Japanese is not your language. The album will be issued on December 23, 2020.
Kala Auction 2020
February 23rd, 2020I am donating this drawing work. I normally don’t publish a drawing as my official artwork but I have been thinking about exploring and expanding this area.
A LITTLE EXHIBITION AT CABRILLO GALLERY
February 23rd, 2020
Center for New Music San Francisco
December 24th, 2019
Center for New Music San Francisco
55 Taylor Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 275-C4NM (2466)
Thu, Nov 7, 2019 — Sun, Jan 5, 2020
“Dragging the Right Chord” is a functioning harpsichord made of corrugated cardboard and installed on a bicycle trailer. I have been thinking about how singing allows us survive through a difficult time. When our egocentric desire hypertrophies and suppressed our sense of beauty into a piece of dust, wisdom from the past once forgotten starts emerging close to our everyday life and gradually balances our life before its fall. I want to pedal with this chimera of old wisdom and contemporary consumerist material and visit you to find a piece of hope which lets us survive through this difficult time.
The Window Gallery at the Center for New Music is supported by the San Francisco Arts Commission in 2016-17.
The Window Gallery at the Center for New Music was supported by New Music USA in 2014.
Exinclusivity -Space of Inclusion Opened
October 13th, 2019
Around challenging lives of refugees, “Exinclusivity -Space of Inclusion” is a project designed to be a multi-media installation piece which consists of interviews, singing and other contributions from participants who are refugees or asylees. The core idea of this project is around how cultural expressions such as singing and writing can possibly support the process of psychological and physical survival over their experience of migration.
The exhibition will be held at Kala Art Institute, Berkeley in October 2019.
October 10, 2019 — November 16, 2019
Reception: Thursday, October 17, 6-8pm
(Exhibition opens on October 10)
Installation: Taro Hattori
Project Participants:
Sholeh Asgary (an asylee from Iran)
Shaghayegh Cyrous (an asylee from Iran)
Robin Gurung (a refugee from Bhutan / Nepal)
Jyoti Gurung (a refugee from Bhutan / Nepal)
and more
Music: Byron Au Young
Curator: Mayumi Hamanaka, Gallery Director at Kala
My piece for an auction at San Jose ICA this year
September 18th, 2019
39th Annual Connect & Collect
Art Auction and Exhibition
September 28 – October 26, 2019
560 South First Street
San Jose, CA 95113 > MAP
I am donating my piece to San Jose ICA again this year. The title is “Basso Continuo” (wood, paper, light; 9 1/2″x13″x8″). It was interesting to see the structure placed “up-side-down” and almost looked like our evil desire in our subconsciousness : )
New Participatory Sound Installation
August 23rd, 2019I presented a new participatory sound installation called “If You Dive In, It’s There” at Agapolis, Portola Valley in conjunction with the residency reception of Agapolis + Building 180 Artist Residency program.
Voice in water:
Kanyon Sayers-Roods from indian Canyon, Hollister, CA (https://indiancanyonlife.org/) “Grandmother Song” (Project page on Kanyon’s website is at https://kanyonkonsulting.com/if-you-dive-in-its-there/)
Voice outside water:
Residents of Agapolis, Portola Valley, CA
Photo credit: X Razma (https://www.raz.ma/)
Special Thanks To:
Kristen Smidstra and the Walnut Creek Aquanuts
Community of Agapolis + Building 180
https://www.agapolis.org/ http://building180.com/
A Little Work for Kala Auction
March 20th, 2019Stuck Stick Study II (2019)
In the last summer 2018, a master carpenter Aikawa in Wakayama taught me the beauty of the surface of wood when its cut or carved with a blade tool, without sanding it. Here I just wanted to explore that aspect in conversation with the material. Sticks are from Douglas Fir and the base is Walnut.
Where is Stuck Stick Study I? I am still working on it : )
A New Little Work for ICA Auction
September 16th, 2018I named this “sleep.”
West Collection at SEI in Indianapolis
August 25th, 2018
Building a Boat for the Obon festival in Tanabe, Wakayama, Japan
August 25th, 2018
Leitmotif – through September 16
August 25th, 2018
“Leitmotif” at San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art
June 25th, 2018
“Leitmotif” has been shown at San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art as part of their bicycle themed group exhibition “On Your Left.” (June 23 – September 16, 2018)
In addition to the video projection of “Leitmotif,” there is a form on which visitors can write their answers to these questions.
- What song reminds you of someone you have lost in your life?
- How is the song related to this person?
- Could you share a memory of this person here?
Also, I wrote this text for this version of “Leitmotif.”
*********
I asked these people in my video to sing a song for someone they have lost in their lives while spinning the wheel of a bicycle.
As a child by looking at a turning wheel, I used to imagine traveling far away. I would step a treadle when my mother was away, or otherwise placed my bicycle upside down then hand-cranked the pedal. I started slowly first, then made it faster and faster traveling through a dark forest and by the shining ocean. Without moving, my imagination was turning endlessly.
When we lose something or someone important, the image and idea of the thing or person cling to our mind and start turning without moving. They are gone, but they keep turning in our mind and in our life. I feel that a turning wheel gives us a time to be with them again as if we are traveling far away with them. Our memory keeps spinning. Our sense of loss is cyclical as a song that repeats in our mind over and over. And it chases itself as if it is trying to make sure the trace of itself.
***********
Grants Received in 2017
September 27th, 2017I am excited to receive generous grants from these foundations. A grant from Cal Humanities was for Rolling Counterpoint. And other two are for my future project “Exinclusivity – Space for Inclusion.” Stay tuned : )
Rolling Counterpoint: Conversations at Covenant Worship Center
June 28th, 2017These are excerpts from our conversation at Covenant Worship Center in West Berkeley.
Rolling Counterpoint, Conversation at Covenant Worship Center in West Berkeley from Taro Hattori on Vimeo.
Rolling Counterpoint at the Latham Square in Downtown Oakland
June 25th, 2017Performances at Asian Art Museum
June 23rd, 2017Performances by Marissa Bergmann and Dr. Dreame at Asian Art Museum for Rolling Counterpoint. Marissa interpreted the questions we had generated from our conversations at Tenderloin National Forest.
“Rolling Counterpoint” at Asian Art Museum
June 11th, 2017Photography by Mayumi Hamanaka
Interview Excerpts from Tenderloin National Forest
June 10th, 2017Rolling Counterpoint at Tenderloin National Forest from Taro Hattori on Vimeo.
Thank you so much, Orazgul Tachmuradova, Bonnie Borucki, Carl Tinelle, Ezell Bishop, Linda Griffin, Tasha Antonette M. Griffin, Torye Nguyen, Eva Mitala, Mr. Ernie Burstall, Erin Doyle Ebeling, Kalifa, Duane Sears, Rita Whittaker, Taraneh Hemami and Gigi Godard!!