Unchanging and changing and changing is a performance accompanying the solo exhibition of the same name. The perfromance brings together Taiko drumming, Nihon Buyo (dance) and washi (Japanese paper) techniques used for costuming. These three Japanese expressions are combined in the spirit of celebrating the potential of hybrid, personal and contemporary interpretations of historical practices. Developed collaboratively with Hatanaka, the performance features drummers Jody Chan & Wy Joung Kou and a mother and daughter dance duo Katherine Yamashita & Danielle Yamashita, the latter whom Hatanaka danced with as a child.

The performance traces a story that reaches back generations and toward a hopeful future despite the certainty of grief and gravity. Percussion and movement meld quietly, and then persistently propel through a constellation of selfhood, tsunami, dis/order, change, koi and Obon Odori.

View the full exhibition here →

Video by Johnny Nghiem and Zachary Hertzman