Global/Transnational Connections: Migrating Aesthetic Forms in Contemporary American Performance

Speaker：Karen Shimakawa

Time: 14:00-16:00，June 6, 2019 (Thursday）

Venue: Room 115, SEIS (9728太阳集团115)

Language: English

Synopsis of Talk：

This lecture examines performance work reflecting the diasporic aesthetics of contemporary Asian American artists.  In different ways, each of these artists' work can be seen as a meditation on the ongoing effects of migration and the circulation of global capital.  I will consider the opera/soundscapes of Byron Au Yong ("Stuck Elevator" and "Belonging"), Eiko Otake's solo performance art ("A Body in Places"), Toshiki Okada's American theater works written to be performed in translation ("Zero Cost House" and "Quiet, Comfort"), and Lenora Lee's immersive choreographic project "Within These Walls" and "Dreams of Flight."  In each of these works, the artist considers the transnational dimensions of "American" identity in sound and movement.

Bio of Speaker：

Karen Shimakawa is an Associate Professor of Performance Studies, Co-Associate Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, and Affiliated Faculty in the NYU School of Law.  She is the author of National Abjection: The Asian American Body Onstage (Duke University Press, 2002) and the co-editor (with Kandice Chuh) of Orientations: Mapping Studies of the Asian Diaspora (Duke University Press, 2001).  Her research and teaching focus on critical race theory and performance.