Migration: Artistic Formations – Alison Kobayashi
An International House Philadelphia Centennial Event
Director Alison Kobayashi in person
Thursday February 24th, 2011
7PM
The Ibrahim Theater
International House
3701 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Admission $8 (general admission) $6 (students, seniors)
Programmed by Robert E. CargniÂ
Alison Kobayashi’s work addresses the migration of desires, alongside the transmission of ideas and memory across distances and time. In other words, the works function as mediation through migration. Kobayashi is captivated by found objects that contain traces of private experiences. Her interest in found narratives resulted in From Alex to Alex and Dan Carter. Finding a lost letter in the first case and a discarded answering machine tape in the second, Kobayashi imagines identities for each person mentioned in the narrative and then performs all the roles herself, thereby demonstrating how media migrates across platforms and into new contexts.
Migration plays a significant role in the development of numerous modern artistic ideas and representations. This series examines the changing movements that transplant artists from one culture to another, intensifying migratory distinctions, and sharpening the conception of the creative role of displacement and estrangement within modern art.