We’re kicking up our month of joyous and playful performance with the Japanese American Toy Theatre of London. Join us for a screening of James Bonk in Matt Blackfinger and Double Indemnity followed by a talk and Q&A with Akiko Hada, Kazuko Hohki, Andrew Brenner and David Toop.
Doors: 6.30pm [talk starts at 7pm]
Tickets: £5 - £10
The Japanese American Toy Theatre of London was started by Kazuko Hohki and Andrew Brenner in 1981. Under the influence of Hollywood musicals and Bunraku (traditional Japanese puppet theatre), as well as the delicate pop art of Joseph Cornell, they present stories of romance and adventure as lived by toys. Shortly after their first series of five Love Stories From The Sea, they were joined by David Toop to further expand the musical horizons of the company's production.
Their repertoire include their adaptations of classic films and novels, such as Double Indemnity, Rebecca, Magnificent Seven Samurai, Day of the Penguin and 47 Unemployed Samurai, as well as original Moonlight Mask, and On The Road With Dharma Bums, loosely based on two Jack Kerouac novels. A video version of Double Indemnity was produced by video artist Akiko Hada in 1983. They collaborated again in 1988 on a piece especially produced for Channel 4: James Bonk in Matt Blackfinger
Akiko Hada - Born 1961 in Japan.
Lived in London 1979-89, now lives and works in Berlin. Has been working with video since 1981.
Apart from producing her own videotapes - including 3 pieces for Channel Four - and installations, she has worked on many commercial and independent productions, and has produced/offline-edited numerous pop promos. One of the main areas of work has been collaboration with various musicians/performing artists, exploring and experimenting with the synthesis of the sound and the image. She has also been involved in curating and and co-ordinating live arts events in London and Berlin, as well as in artists' organisations such as London Video Arts and Videokunst & Multimedia Berlin e.V.
Her videotapes have been shown extensively at various festivals and museums in Europe as well as North America, Japan, etc. including numerous TV broadcasts in many countries, and a VHS compilation of her work was released for sale as part of London Electronic Arts' "Artists Anthologies" series in the 1990's.
Kazuko Hohki
Originally from Japan, Kazuko moved to London in 1978, and founded the pop performance group Frank Chickens, which released 5 albums, toured worldwide and still continues to perform with more than 20 members - mainly consisting of Japanese women. For past three decades, Kazuko has been making theatre work, creating several full-length award-winning shows which toured worldwide and received international acclaim. In recent years, Kazuko has been focusing on cross-cultural outreach and engagement, creating a site specific shows with local communities and schools. She is part of Ura Matsuri Collective, which organises an annual festival, Ura Matsuri, to celebrate the hybrid cultures of East Asian communities in the UK.
David Toop
David has been developing a practice that crosses boundaries of sound, listening, music and materials since 1970, encompassing improvised music performance, writing, electronic sound, field recording, exhibition curating, sound art installations and opera. It includes eight acclaimed books, including Ocean of Sound, Sinister Resonance, Into the Maelstrom, Flutter Echo and Inflamed Invisible. His 1978 Amazonas recordings of Yanomami shamanism were released on Sub Rosa as Lost Shadows. Solo records include New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments, Entities Inertias Faint Beings and Apparition Paintings. He is Emeritus Professor at London College of Communication.
blog: https://davidtoopblog.com
Andrew Brenner
Andrew has been writing children’s animation since 1995, generating a very large number of short scripts (as well as a few longer ones). Creator of Nick Jr’s Humf, and ITV’s The Caribou Kitchen, he collaborated with a team of autistic adults to write Pablo for CBeebies, the first animated series with an autistic central character. Headwriter of Thomas and Friends for 7 years, he's also written Moominvalley, Brave Bunnies, Nelly and Nora, The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers, Little Wolf’s Book Of Badness, Maisy and The Cramp Twins. Brenner’s writing work is informed by a history of performance and music-making including The Japanese American Toy Theatre of London and DIY non-supergroup, The 49 Americans.
