Join us Saturday March 19th for a special, in-person artist reception at Arcana.

Co-hosted by Midori + Queerly Complex, enjoy talks with the artist and global sounds selected by DJ Tom Axe.

*This event is All Ages, kids are welcome.*

 

In Tectonic, Midori asks us to “look up and see what we are standing on.” She addresses the geopolitical, historical, and economic configurations of the globe, by disorienting both the map and the viewer to experience the world from diverse centers and orientations.

While the Pacific Plate portion of this work takes a large role, reflecting her literal physical positioning as someone who grew up on both sides of it, Midori invites the viewers to enter the space of disorientation and multiplicity experienced by the global majority.

Through Tectonic, Midori continues to explore the power of collaboration and the use of reclaimed or rescued material. Together with local artist comrades and international makers, through the digital platform of Patreon, they transformed waste into art. The wood from architectural salvage is dressed with ropes that had initially failed to meet the manufacturer’s industrial quality standard, then kept out of the landfill, given to Midori, and used in multiple installations. As part of this project’s research, Midori and collaborators also worked on transforming plastic beverage bottles into weaving material. All of this entwines with her connection to traditional Japanese craft and survival technologies.

Reclamation of material and understanding mutual reliance on one another for survival are lessons Midori learned both as a veteran and from her working-class Japanese heritage. Collective responsibility, plurality, and the need for fellowship for survival and sustainability are core to what she does – and ultimately, she believes, for humanity, if humanity is to heal and evolve.

 

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Midori ( 美登里 ) is a queer, Japanese American artist. She creates work that gives shape and texture to emotion, desire, repulsion, collective memory, and subconscious revisions of experience. Her performances are physical and durational, often inviting the audience to join in and become co-conspirators in the labor of art.

Reclamation of material and collaboration are core values that inform almost everything she creates and the multiplicity of perspective and disorientation are ongoing themes in her work.

Born and raised in Japan with Japanese and German American heritage, Midori grew up loving Japanese folk art and traditional survival technologies, even as she struggled against the pressures of racism and sexism. Now a San Franciscan of thirty years, her body, like her art, bridges multiple cultures.

After serving in the military, she began her art career performing in queer nightclubs, collaborating with other ‘weirdo’ transgressive and experimental artists, saying “Sure, I’ll do it!” to even the oddest of opportunities. She describes herself as “born an abomination, traveling between worlds seeking other monsters – we are so many monsters.”

Midori’s work has been shown at San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Leslie Lohman Museum, SoMArts, Das Arts Amsterdam, Gorilla Gallery Oaxaca, Root Division, among others.

 

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Arcana is a plant shop, wine bar, and entertainment venue in the Mission district of San Francisco created by Naz Khorram, founder and curator. After being sentenced and released as a political prisoner in 2009, Naz fled Iran and moved to San Francisco. As a young asylum seeker, not only did Naz value their education at the Academy of Art University but also their unwavering passion for hospitality. Queer artist, metalsmith, horticulturist, event curator—these are just a few descriptors to describe Naz’s adventurous spirit, which has brought them to the forefront of another daring endeavor that is Arcana.