Japan Society Announces Rare 'Fluxfilms' Screening With Experimental Filmmaker Jeffrey Perkins
This special event will take place on January 17, 2024 at 7PM.
By: Michael Major Dec. 18, 2023
Japan Society, a 116-year-old non-profit organization focused on bringing Japan and the U.S. closer together, announces a rare screening of films from the radical 1960's Fluxus movement together with a conversation with Fluxus filmmaker Jeffrey Perkins.
This special event will take place on January 17, 2024 at 7PM, and is held in celebration of Japan Society Gallery's current exhibition - Out of Bounds: Japanese Women Artists in Fluxus - closing on January 21.
Fluxus was an international experimental art movement in the 1960's focused on the creative process and spanning various mediums. Fluxfilms - an offshoot of this movement - concentrated on a wide array of short films from the avant garde to the absurd, ranging from 10 seconds to 10 minutes in length. Fluxus' films were unique experimental cinema created by many of the key global voices instrumental to the Fluxus movement, with filmmakers including Nam June Paik, George Maciunas and Yoko Ono.
Japan Society will present an evening of Fluxus films followed by an on-stage conversation between filmmaker Jeffrey Perkins and guest curator of Out of Bounds Midori Yoshimoto.
Jeffery Perkins is an experimental filmmaker and Fluxus artist. Perkins was born in New York and attended high school in Springfield, Massachusetts. Perkins met Yoko Ono when stationed in Tokyo as an Air Force medic and temporarily lived with her when he returned to New York in 1966, a period when he also became actively involved in New York's Fluxus community. He collaborated with Tony Cox on the film Shout (Fluxus Film #22) and shot Yoko Ono's film Bottoms (Fluxus Film #4).
Midori Yoshimoto is professor of art history and gallery director at New Jersey City University. Yoshimoto's areas of expertise are post-1945 Japanese art and its global intersections, with a particular emphasis on women artists, Fluxus and intermedia art. Her dissertation, Into Performance: Japanese Women Artists in New York, was published in 2005 (Rutgers University Press).
She has contributed to numerous museum catalogs, including: Yes Yoko Ono (Japan Society, 2000); Japanese Women Artists in Avant-garde Movements (Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Art, 2005); Dissonance: Six Japanese Women Artists (Toyota Museum of Art, 2008); and Yayoi Kusama (Centre Pompidou, 2011).
Out of Bounds: Japanese Women Artists in Fluxus is the first exhibition to fully explore the essential role of Japanese women in Fluxus, an artist movement in the 1960's that helped contemporary artists define new modes of artistic expression. Near the 60th anniversary of the movement's founding, this exhibition highlights the contributions of four pioneering Japanese artists — Shigeko Kubota (1937–2015), Yoko Ono (1933–), Takako Saito (1929–), and Mieko Shiomi (1938–) — and contextualizes their role within Fluxus and the broader artistic movements of the 1960's and beyond.
The exhibition is organized by Midori Yoshimoto, Guest Curator, and Tiffany Lambert, Curator and Interim Director, Japan Society, with Ayaka Iida, Assistant Curator, Japan Society.
Tickets: $16 / $14 students and seniors / $8 Japan Society members.
**Tickets include both admission to Japan Society's Fluxfilms screening as well as the Out of Bounds exhibition.
Tickets are available at japansociety.org/film. Screening will take place on January 17 at 7PM inside Japan Society's landmarked headquarters at 333 East 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues), one block from the United Nations.
About Japan Society Film
Spurred on by the success of the 1970 Donald Richie-curated MoMA retrospective The Japanese Film: 1896-1969, Japan Society committed to making film one of its key programs in the early seventies—quickly becoming the premier venue for the exhibition of new Japanese cinema as well as career-spanning retrospectives on seminal directors and actors.
In 1979, Japan Society established the Japan Film Center, formalizing film as a full-fledged, year-round program aimed at cultivating a deep appreciation and understanding of Japanese film culture among American audiences. Over the years, Japan Society Film has hosted numerous high-profile premieres and programs that include visits from Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune, Hideko Takamine and Nobuhiko Obayashi. In 2007, Japan Society Film launched JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film, the largest festival of its kind in North America.
About Japan Society
Japan Society is the premier organization connecting Japanese arts, culture, business and society with audiences in New York and around the world. At Japan Society, we are inspired by the Japanese concept of kizuna (絆)–forging deep connections to bind people together. We are committed to telling the story of Japan while strengthening connections within New York City and building new bridges beyond.
In over 100 years of work, we've inspired generations by establishing ourselves as pioneers in supporting international exchanges in arts and culture, business, and policy, as well as education between Japan and the U.S. We strive to convene important conversations on topics that bind our two countries together, champion the next generation of innovative creators, promote mutual understanding and serve as a trusted guide for people everywhere who seek to more fully appreciate the rich complexities and abundance of Japan.
From our New York headquarters, a landmark building designed by architect Junzo Yoshimura that opened to the public in 1971, we look forward to the years ahead, which will be defined by our digital and ideational impact through the kizuna that we build. Our future can only be enhanced by learning from our peers and engaging with our audiences, both near and far.
Japan Society programs are made possible by leadership support from Booth Ferris Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Film programs are generously supported by ORIX Corporation USA, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and Yen Press. Endowment support is provided by the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Endowment Fund and The John and Miyoko Davey Endowment Fund. Additional season support is provided by The Globus Family, David Toberisky, and Friends of Film.
Transportation assistance is provided by Japan Airlines, the official Japanese airline sponsor of Japan Society Film. Housing assistance is provided by the Kitano Hotel, the official hotel sponsor of Japan Society Film.
Exhibitions and Arts & Culture Lecture Programs are made possible, in part, by Sompo Holdings, Inc., the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Endowment Fund; the Mary Griggs Burke Endowment Fund established by the Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation; The Masako Mera and Koichi Mera, PhD Fund for Education and the Arts; Peggy and Dick Danziger; Thierry Porté and Yasko Tashiro; and Friends of the Gallery. Support for Arts & Culture Lecture Programs is provided, in part, by the Sandy Heck Lecture Fund. Transportation assistance is provided by Japan Airlines, the official Japanese airline sponsor for Japan Society gallery exhibitions.
Image: Yoko Ono, Eyeblink (Fluxus Film #9), 1966.
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