Isumi City, Japan

The project, 122 Conversations: Person to Person, Art Beyond Borders was inspired by the Sister City International mission: ‘To promote peace through mutual respect, understanding and cooperation – one individual at a time.’ Over the course of six years, I worked with six Sister Cities, in six different countries, and on four continents. More than 4500 people participated in various initiatives of the project. 122 Conversations included six exhibitions, multiple community engagement events, nearly 1000 works of art, a critical and urgent pedagogy, and a beautiful project catalogue. I was fortunate enough to participate as an artist-in-residence in five of the six sites.

Together with Daiki Santou, Eiko Ishii, Pavel Bednar we work with all ages of students within schools and several public festivals as well as the 122 Conversations engagements. There the exhibition was viewed by more than 500 people per day as they passed through the Isume City civic building. Isumi City Hall turned out to be not only the most publicly available venue to date, but it’s three story ceilings and vast atrium allowed for an exceptionally dramatic presentation of the scrolls, including their unfurling aspart of the opening ceremony.

I visited Japan as an artist-in-residence, connecting and creating with a vast network of artists and educators. I collaborated with Pavel Ishii and Daiki Santou to create a black and white scroll, which was created at public interventions during several festivals. I was directly connected to many Japanese communities and lived with a local artist’s family. They Aaccompanied me everywhere; I felt so special. It was such an intimate, personal, and creative experience; space was created for me to form a pathway for intimacy despite the language barrier. Oh, and those Japanese paints and brushes… amazing.