The collaborative dance performance Property of Opaqueness is the first iteration of choreographer Takahiro Yamamoto's project under the umbrella title Opacity of Performance, which will debut at the Portland Art Museum in Fall 2020. This multi-year project investigates visibility and the physical and emotional effects that performers and viewers undergo when acts of looking, moving, and paying attention vary over an extended duration. When does visibility/invisibility validate the performer and when does it negate them? What are the social consequences of looking at a performing body today?
Opacity of Performance applies Edouard Glissant’s idea of opacity to a discipline that relies on the audience’s clear desire to see the performers. For him, opacity is “that which cannot be reduced” to the familiar. It is the part of ourselves that others cannot grasp, “the thing that would bring us together forever and make us permanently distinctive.” By varying levels of visibility/opacity in the work, Yamamoto proposes that both viewers and performers use perception and imagination to reflect on the relational nature of validation and understanding. In this work, Yamamoto centers the unknowable as a vulnerable yet necessary state of being.
In bringing
Property of Opaqueness to Seattle, Yamamoto will further his research for
Opacity of Performance by collaborating with local artists and thinkers, both in this performance on October 6, and during a
public discussion at the Henry on Saturday, October 5.
This iteration of Property of Opaqueness will feature Portland filmmaker Roland Dahwen Wu and Seattle artist and arts administrator Rana San, performing alongside Yamamoto.
Performer Bios:
Originally from Shizuoka Japan, Takahiro Yamamoto is an artist and choreographer based in Portland, Oregon. His approach to choreography is interpersonal and observational. He starts conceptual investigations with a question–currently about the ontology of performance, mutability of identity, and social implication of the gaze–as he invites collaborators to bring their own perspectives into the creation. Yamamoto has received support from National Performance Network, Japan Foundation, Regional Arts & Culture Council, and danceWEB Scholarship Program, among others. Both his performance productions and visual art works have been presented at PICA (Portland), Diverseworks (Houston), Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati), GoDown Arts Centre (Nairobi), Center on Contemporary Arts (Seattle), and others. Yamamoto holds an MFA in Visual Studies from Pacific Northwest College of Art. He co-directs the performance company madhause with Ben Evans, and is part of the Portland-based support group Physical Education with Allie Hankins, keyon gaskin, and Lu Yim.
Roland Dahwen is a filmmaker whose work explores migration, race and memory. His films and installations have been shown at CalArts, Portland Art Museum, Time Based Art Festival, Northwest Film Center, and numerous galleries. He is a recipient of the Oregon Media Arts Fellowship (2018) and an artist-in-residence in Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's Creative Exchange Lab (2018). He is the founder of
Patuá Films.
Rana San is an artist and arts administrator whose creative practice melds dreamwork, written word, body in motion, video poetry, and analog photography. She’s interested in the ways we relate to ourselves, each other, our surroundings, the unknown, and the new meanings that are made in spaces where artistic mediums meet. In community, Rana crafts collective experiences that elevate the work of artists and activists using film, media, and contemporary performing arts to incite connection. She has developed and produced cultural festivals, museum programs, and intimate creative salons in Seattle, Istanbul, and Barcelona and currently serves as the Artistic Director at Northwest Film Forum in Seattle, Washington.
CREDITS
Additional support for the development of this performance is provided by the University of Washington Department of Dance.