Info Night & Discussion - International Conference on Reconstruction of Japan & WASTE project

Thursday, August 4, 2011 - 19:30

Speakers: Sakiko Sugawa (Hanare Project, Japan) & Sam Fox (Hydra Poesis)

CIA Studios, 480 Newcastle St, West Perth

MORE INFO:Japanese organiser and media activist Sakiko Sugawa will introduce the Perth leg to her worldwide project International Conference on Reconstruction of Japan (ICRJ) taking place here in November (and hot on the heels of CHOGM) as part of PICA's Alternating Currents exhibition.* ICRJ is a collaboration between Sakiko and San Francisco based artist Keith Pasko.

ICRJ references the big international conferences that have been held for countries devastated by natural disasters and wars. However, ICRJ is a counter to these mega-conferences that are populated by politicians and corporate representatives. ICRJ involves Sakiko and her collaborators hosting small dinners with groups of people whose expertise is drawn from their personal experience or work on the ground. Sakiko will present the ideas behind the project and is interested in responses from a diverse range of Perth 'experts'.

Sam Fox will introduce a new cross-artform collaborative initiative called WASTE that investigates ideas, aesthetics and politics of cultural and material refuse. A key part of the process will involve artists contributing works that have failed, been abandoned, rejected or forgotten. WASTE will link in with ICRJ Perth and is one of the ways Perth artists can be involved in Sakiko and Keith's project.

*The Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) with the support of the Japan Foundation and Allens Arthur Robinson present Alternating Currents, a co-curated group exhibition of contemporary Japanese artists. This exhibition is part of a series of three different but connected exhibitions (Under the shared title Omnilogue) that will take place in New Delhi and Singapore in 2012, culminating in singular publication uniting the exhibitions, and a symposium on broader issues Asian art in Singapore in June 2012.