Tomoko Hojo

Wednesday, June 22nd, at 8pm ET, ISSUE and AvanTokyo are pleased to present the debut New York City performance of Japanese sound artist Fuji||||||||||ta. Coming to NYC after recently being commissioned with Rashad Becker as part of ISSUE's Distant Pairs series, Fuji||||||||||ta performs in-person with his self-built one-of-a-kind pipe organ instrument that incorporates voice synthesized water tanks. The evening will also feature work from sound artist, musician, and performer Tomoko Hojo exploring unspoken words, the fluidity between listening and speaking, and “voiceless voices.”

Since 2006, Fuji||||||||||ta has had an expansive history of solo performances and collaborative works with musicians, such as ∈Ｙ∋ (Boredoms), Akio Suzuki, Keiji Haino, Koichi Makigami and more. In 2020, he released the albums “iki” [Hallow Ground] and “KŌMORI” [Boomkat Editions]. With his recent music performed on a wheezing, self-built pipe organ, Fuji||||||||||ta’s music unfolds into a set of oddly tuned organ meditations that bridge the gap between sacred music and contemporary improvisation, composition, and electronic music. The unique instrument features only 11 pipes, has no keyboard, and is powered by an air pump called a “fuigo” based on a traditional blacksmith’s model. The instrument’s sound is enchanting, and is sensitively brought to life by the artist, who has evidently spent his time taming the instrument and bringing out its sublime, warbling harmonic and timbral qualities. The overarching influence for Fuji||||||||||ta is traditional Japanese gagaku, the slow and elegant form of classical court music extant since the 7th century. In this context, FUJI||||||||||TA’s music unfolds with a graceful, if abstracted logic, imaginatively expressing a stunning and unique sound.

Tomoko Hojo has been working on the theme of silenced (women) voices in history since 2018, with a special focus on Yoko Ono as a representative figure. Historically, Ono has mainly been discussed through her relationship to John Lennon and regarded as a “gossip lady” by the mass media. The performance piece ‘I am listening to you’ is based on an oral history interview with Lennon and Ono conducted on 6 December 1980, two days before Lennon’s death. Whereas Lennon had been talking without interruption, Ono was often muted and mostly accompanied his speech by laughing with a high soft small voice. In Japanese society, people insert ‘aizuchi’ - a sort of backchannel such as ’huh’ or ‘yeah’ - quite often during the conversation, to let the other speaker know that they are actively listening. Although Ono seems to inhabit this specific behavior, there is equally an absence, a meandering in a different time and place. Listening becomes the act of imagining unspoken words, and gradually shifts into a fluidity between listening and speaking, and voiceless voices hidden under discourses would become audible.

FUJI||||||||||TA is a sound artist living in Japan. He creates unique sound art and music which takes various natural phenomena that respond to his interest in wanting to hear unheard sounds and noises. In 2009 Fujita hand fabricated an original instrument, a Pipe Organ. It has only 11 pipes and no keyboard. Fujita made it with his own imagination, without any specialized knowledge. It was designed to create a landscape rather than function as a musical instrument. He got the idea from Japanese “gagaku.” The air pump (called “FUIGO”) which is kept moving with the left hand when playing, is based on an ancient blacksmith’s. It is a one-of-a-kind instrument, so he spent years developing how to perform it. The water element (with sound synthesized water tanks) has recently been added to his performance repertoire. The music consists of aquatic sounds from multiple tanks alongside his pipe organ, and his voice. He has presented sound installation works in many contexts: the work “CELL”, which made audible the sounds of black soldier fly maggots buried in dirt, was exhibited in Sapporo International Art Festival 2017 and attracted a great deal of interest in Fujita’s artistic practice. A performance with an organ and 4 water tanks was performed at MODE (London) in 2019.

Tomoko Hojo is an artist working within the fluidity between sound, music and performance. Recently Hojo works on the theme that makes (women’s) silenced voices audible in the history, with a special focus on Japanese women who have relations to western countries, such as Yoko Ono and Sadayakko Kawakami. Recent solo exhibitions and concerts are Unearthed Tremor (Contemporary Art Center Aomori, 2021)’ , fall asleep (SA))_gallery, Moscow, 2021), Music From Japan Festival 2021 (Scandinavia House, New York, 2021), Sotto Voce (TOKAS Hongo, Tokyo, 2019), Lost and Found (Kotolňa, Košice, 2018). She is a grantee of Overseas Study by Young Artists (The Pola Art Foundation, 2017), New York Fellowship (Asian Cultural Council, 2019), and a visiting researcher at CRiSAP, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London in 2017-2018. She also has an ongoing collaborative project as Hojo+Kraft. Their works highlight the individual hidden, private relationship between sound and place. Their albums were released on LA based label LINE in 2020 and 2021.