UPDATE, June 28: As of June 26, the Greater Sydney region including the Central Coast, the Blue Mountains and Wollongong is under a compulsory two-week lockdown until 11.59pm on July 9. Many events in Sydney have therefore been cancelled or postponed until after this period.
The list of Japanese-born, Melbourne-based artist Kiki Ando’s accomplishments is impressive. Fusing traditional practices like Butoh dance, hand-crafted ceramics and the ancient art of Kamiko – creating beautiful, wearable paper clothing – with contemporary sensibilities and expressive live performance, she's also an accomplished filmmaker with a flair for animation.
You’ll be able to soak up all of this awesome at her latest exhibition. Hosted by the Japan Foundation, Sydney, and showing from July 9 to September 25, Highest Mountain and Deepest Bay promises to be an exhilarating look at an incredible career. Showing over 60 works, it includes her latest animation, Rare Deep Sea Fish Develop My Unique Personality.
Her multi-disciplinary craft has also been influenced by time spent in Berlin, where she collaborated with electronic pop band Private Posh Club, and she's worked in puppetry and prop design for East Timorese film project Studio 3. In other words, there’s a lot to get excited about.
Ando will travel to Sydney for opening night on Friday, July 9 at 6pm, where you’ll be able to see her perform live, set to the beat of electronic and ambient star Ai Yamamoto. The kids can get involved too, with a paper costume-making workshop the next day, on Saturday, July 10 at 10am. Little ones will learn how to upcycle newspaper and other bits and bobs into wearable art. It'll get them (and you) thinking about alternative approaches to the unsustainable nature of fast fashion. Tickets cost $15 and you can book here.
As if all this wasn’t enough to intrigue, Ando has curated a series of classic Japanese animated films, screening at Palace Cinemas Central. You’ll be able to catch Studio Ghibli’s haunting Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, the magical vignettes of Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, and acclaimed filmmaker Satoshi Kon final animated feature Paprika. All three have inspired Ando's practice, and now they can get your creative juices flowing too. Even better, they are totaly free, but you need to book here.
