Events

AIRMW Livestream: Episode 04
Sunday, July 12, 2020
7pm CST

STREAM.AIRMW.ORG

The fourth installment of our AIRMW livestream will go “behind the curtains” of Tsukasa Taiko’s annual winter concert Taiko Legacy at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. We will introduce never-before-seen footage, special photos, and a full breakdown of our process as we prepare our largest production of the year. This will be a true virtual VIP backstage pass to everything that unfolds off the Tsukasa Taiko stage. Please join us for Episode 04 on the second Sunday of July! Please join us for Episode 04 on the second Sunday of July!

Shikoukairo II: Patterns of Thought | FEATURED ARTIST TALK

Join us online and offline at Hairpin Arts Center for a panel discussion of Shikoukairo II with the 2020 exhibiting artists. Full artist bios available at chicagObihiro.org:

• Jennifer Chen-su Huang | Chicago
• Hua Xi Zi | Chicago
• Taro Takizawa | NY
• Kiyomi Negi | Chicago
• Kioto Aoki | Chicago

We will be livestreaming the talk at stream.airmw.org. Audience attendance will be in compliance with Hairpin Arts Center’s COVID-19 safety protocol. More info coming soon.

This event is part of the Shikoukairo II special programming, and the exhibit is a Chicago Obihiro Exchange Project Initiative presented by Asian Improv aRts Midwest. Visit chicagObihiro.org for latest info.

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With travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic affecting original plans for the 2020 exchange, this year’s exhibition focuses on the underlying agenda of the Chicago Obihiro Exchange Program: to reframe the conversation around cultural diegesis in the arts. Featuring Chicago-based artists Hua Xi Zi and Jennifer Chen-su Huang, New York-based artist Taro Takizawa, and Kiyomi Negi & Kioto Aoki of AIRMW, Shikoukairo II brings together a group of artists whose practices employ a visual and conceptual rhetoric intuitively influenced by their diasporic background, yet beyond a diegetic search for cultural identity through their work. 

The exhibition revisits the concept of shikoukairo – meaning patterns of thought. The 2019 Shikoukairo show introduced the concept to highlight the multiplicities of approaches by Japanese and Japanese American artists outside the archetypal, diegetic confines of the search for cultural identity through art. This year, shikoukairo acquires a new meaning, as the artists simultaneously reflect on what it means to make work and how one does so during extended isolation. The process and material-based works are occipital, tactile and linguistic explorations that try to question and reassess the relationship between body, mind, and our immediate environment of the home, social, and physical space.

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Visit stream.airmw.org for all Shikoukairo II Livestream Events:

– Friday, July 17th | 7pm – Artist Talk

– Saturday, July 18th | 7pm – Shikoukairo II LIVE CONCERT from Tokyo, Elastic Arts, and Hairpin Arts Center featuring Hiroshi Mehata

– More events coming soon!

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Initiated in 2018, the Chicago Obihiro Exchange Project is a program produced by AIRMW that facilitates an immersive exchange between Japanese-American artists in Chicago and artists from the Obihiro / Tokachi area in Japan.

In 2019, artists from Obihiro and Chicago presented a joint exhibition at Hairpin Arts Center under the name of Shikoukairo – Patterns of Thought. Framing the conversation around what it means to be defined as a Japanese artist, particularly outside of Japan, the exhibition focused on artists who deal with a vernacular of aesthetics rather than a vernacular of didactics. The artists here are inherently influenced by their Japanese cultural background, yet the content of their work goes beyond a retroactive search for cultural identity. Their mode of practice is grounded in how the innate nature of growing up with the language, culture, and traditions manifest a visual or affectual aesthetic. The international dialogue between Chicago and Japan maintains a global perspective integral to the landscape of contemporary art.

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Chicago Obihiro Exchange Project is an AIRMW Arts Initiative program. Support AIRMW artists & staff: Venmo us at @AIRMW or visit airmw.org/emergencyfund to send funds through PayPal/credit card.

Shikoukairo II: Patterns of Thought
Livestream Concert Event feat. Hiroshi Mehata
Special Performance streamed from Tokyo, Elastic Arts, and Hairpin Arts Center

STREAM.AIRMW.ORG

Join us online and offline at for a one-night-only special livestream concert event feat. 2019 Chicago Obihiro Exchange Project artist Hiroshi Mehata from Tokyo. Tatsu Aoki and additional experimental music giants will join the virtual stage to commemorate the 2020 Shikoukairo II exhibition. More info available at chicagObihiro.org.

Elastic Arts and Hairpin Arts Center audience attendance will be in compliance with each respective venue’s COVID-19 safety protocol. More info coming soon.

This event is part of the Shikoukairo II special programming, and the exhibit is a Chicago Obihiro Exchange Project Initiative presented by Asian Improv aRts Midwest.

______________

With travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic affecting original plans for the 2020 exchange, this year’s exhibition focuses on the underlying agenda of the Chicago Obihiro Exchange Program: to reframe the conversation around cultural diegesis in the arts. Featuring Chicago-based artists Hua Xi Zi and Jennifer Chen-su Huang, New York-based artist Taro Takizawa, and Kiyomi Negi & Kioto Aoki of AIRMW, Shikoukairo II brings together a group of artists whose practices employ a visual and conceptual rhetoric intuitively influenced by their diasporic background, yet beyond a diegetic search for cultural identity through their work. 

The exhibition revisits the concept of shikoukairo – meaning patterns of thought. The 2019 Shikoukairo show introduced the concept to highlight the multiplicities of approaches by Japanese and Japanese American artists outside the archetypal, diegetic confines of the search for cultural identity through art. This year, shikoukairo acquires a new meaning, as the artists simultaneously reflect on what it means to make work and how one does so during extended isolation. The process and material-based works are occipital, tactile and linguistic explorations that try to question and reassess the relationship between body, mind, and our immediate environment of the home, social, and physical space.

______________

Visit stream.airmw.org for all Shikoukairo II Livestream Events:

– Friday, July 17th | 7pm – Artist Talk

– Saturday, July 18th | 7pm – Shikoukairo II LIVE CONCERT from Tokyo, Elastic Arts, and Hairpin Arts Center featuring Hiroshi Mehata

– More events coming soon!

______________

Initiated in 2018, the Chicago Obihiro Exchange Project is a program produced by AIRMW that facilitates an immersive exchange between Japanese-American artists in Chicago and artists from the Obihiro / Tokachi area in Japan.

In 2019, artists from Obihiro and Chicago presented a joint exhibition at Hairpin Arts Center under the name of Shikoukairo – Patterns of Thought. Framing the conversation around what it means to be defined as a Japanese artist, particularly outside of Japan, the exhibition focused on artists who deal with a vernacular of aesthetics rather than a vernacular of didactics. The artists here are inherently influenced by their Japanese cultural background, yet the content of their work goes beyond a retroactive search for cultural identity. Their mode of practice is grounded in how the innate nature of growing up with the language, culture, and traditions manifest a visual or affectual aesthetic. The international dialogue between Chicago and Japan maintains a global perspective integral to the landscape of contemporary art.

______________

Chicago Obihiro Exchange Project is an AIRMW Arts Initiative program. Support AIRMW artists & staff: Venmo us at @AIRMW or visit airmw.org/emergencyfund to send funds through PayPal/credit card.

Asian Improv aRts Midwest Presents:
Next Project TBA

Fourth installment of AIRMW programming on HotHouse Global will feature local, national, and international artists. Stream on 7/25 7PM CST at twitch.tv/hothouseglobal

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Artist Line-Up:

TBA

AIRMW Livestream: Episode 05
Sunday, July 26, 2020
7pm CST

STREAM.AIRMW.ORG

The fifth installment of our AIRMW livestream will be another rare opportunity to see three Fujima Grandmasters sit down and speak in-depth about the Fujima-ryu Chicago school. The discussion focuses on one of the classic Nagauta dances “Sanbaso,” accompanied by archival footage and a live performance exploring the path from training to the stage. Please join us for Episode 05 on the fourth Sunday of July!