Join us for a Coffee @ 10 lecture with artist Mami Takahashi discussing the meanings between "us" and "others" using their "Writing Myself" work and "Seeing You/Seeing Me" project.
About the artist: "Using painting, street performance, installation, poetry, and printmaking, my practice explores the meanings between "us" and "others" In the United States, I developed my practice based on the experience of "strangers" that many people would face when faced with a new situation. I believe that in both Japan and the United States, immigrants' struggles to become part of their new "homeland" share a winding path of fear nonetheless, although individual and varying. A quote by Ai Weiwei describes how I approach my art practice: 'If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?' These thoughts pushed the conceptual aspect of my practice. In 2014, I started a project, called “Seeing You/Seeing Me” to visualize my discomfiture with regard to the difference in social expectations and norms in the US. In 2021 and 2022, I had the opportunity to extend this to various regions of the United States and developed it as a community participation project. In 2023, I returned to Japan, and as a 'Japanese' rather than a foreigner, I am focusing on community members who are socially and culturally placed as “others” and the complexity of being a member of that society." - Mami Takahashi
This event is taking place in person at CTAC-Petoskey and online via Zoom or Facebook.
