Artist Statement
In my recent work, I explore the ways we cross the bridge between “we” and “they,” the inside and the outside, by facilitating creative and generative actions such as singing and conversing. My installations and socially engaged projects function as the framework where the crossing occurs. I begin my process by focusing on personal and social dissonances, such as refugee experiences in the United States, then start my project with an uncomfortable question that all of us and them are facing. Music has become a tool to represent the way we balance ourselves through our lives, and it gives us the ideas of conflict and harmony that allow poetic transformations of our desire, vulnerability and connections. By inviting people into my sculpture, installations and social settings, I encourage them to observe others and themselves, to consider never-ending cycles of conflict and resolution, and to participate in a conversation with each other and the work.
June, 2022
Biography
Taro Hattori is an interdisciplinary installation and social practice artist which often focus on building a relationship between physical settings and the people with a specific socio-political background through their performances, conversations and singing. Hattori has been a recent recipient of a grant from Creative Work Fund, Pyllis C Wattis Foundation, California Arts Council, Art Matters Foundation, Zellerbach Foundation, Center for Cultural Innovation and others. He has been awarded a residency fellowship from MacDowell, Headlands Center for the Arts, Montalvo Arts Center, Djerassi Resident Artist Program, The deYoung Art Museum, Kuandu Art Museum in Taiwan and others. Hattori currently teaches at California College of the Arts.