American Recordings
In 2020, Moko Fukuyama embarked on the production of American Recordings, a long-term, process-based art series that incorporates movie production, video installation, performance, research, essays, collaboration, and music composition. The series, showcasing politically relevant, personal stories from across the United States, will be presented at multiple venues, both physically and virtually, over the next several years. The first two iterations of this project — Act I: American Harvest and Act ll: American Frequency — were produced by The Kitchen in spring 2021. They were created and exhibited at Queenslab and curated by Alison Burstein.
During a residency hosted by The Kitchen at Queenslab from February 15–27, Fukuyama produced two new pieces as part of her project American Recordings, an ongoing series that reflects on the state of public discourse within the United States today. In the first week, the artist staged and filmed two performances featuring music compositions by her collaborator Yo! Vinyl Richie: LEVEL PLAYING FIELD and American Recordings, Act II: American Frequency. Installations and videos resulting from these performances were on view at Queenslab on February 26 and 27. This page includes documentation of and information about the works presented at Queenslab.
To learn more about Moko Fukuyama: American Recordings—visit the project page here.
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD, part of American Recordings, Act I: American Harvest, 2021
Felt, video (time-lapse, color; 7:00 minutes), live feed camera footage
Produced with Andy Barrett, Nana Hiramatsu, Joel Morrison, and Aaron Suggs
Created during a durational performance filmed at Queenslab on February 16 and 17, LEVEL PLAYING FIELD is an installation that records the process of disassembling and recomposing the elements of American flag. The piece is one component of Fukuyama’s larger work American Recordings, Act I: American Harvest, which focuses on Iowa as its geographical subject. The performance and installation allude to two defining characteristics of the state: its rolling plains and abundant farmlands. Through their handling of the flag, Fukuyama and her collaborators transform the national symbol into a landscape, planting the stars and stripes in new configurations across an expansive field inside Queenslab.
The installation pairs the sculptural composition with aerial views from pre-recorded and live video feeds. While the physical form is rich with material variations, the monitors and projection render the depicted area as a flattened image. Calling attention to this loss of texture, LEVEL PLAYING FIELD underscores the discrepancy between the immediate recognizability of a symbol and the manifold complexities and nuances of what it represents.
American Recordings, Act II: American Frequency, 2021, in collaboration with Yo! Vinyl Richie,
Three-channel video (color, sound; 43:51 minutes)
Second camera operated by Aaron Suggs
American Recordings, Act II: American Frequency revolves around an ongoing conversation between Fukuyama and Keland Nance, a resident of Memphis, TN who the artist has known since 2014. After a chance meeting on Nance’s property in South Memphis, he and Fukuyama formed a relationship that took shape through a series of filmed interviews over the past seven years. Combining fragments of those discussions about subjects ranging from Nance’s personal trajectory to his views of current events, this work presents a portrait of an individual’s experiences as rooted in the place where he was born and raised.
In a performance staged at Queenslab on February 20, Fukuyama extended her exchange with Nance by inviting another interlocutor, DJ and turntablist Yo! Vinyl Richie, to engage with his ideas. Positioned in front of three video projections, Yo! Vinyl Richie created a soundscape of samples, beats, and spoken word that interpreted and responded to Nance’s narrative as it unfolded on the central screen. Fukuyama processed this communication in real time by filming the DJ and feeding the footage directly onto one of the side screens. The final screen projected live footage of Fukuyama behind her camera, filmed by Aaron Suggs.
Like the performance, the resulting installation captures the feedback loop among Fukuyama and her collaborators. Across the three videos, Nance, Fukuyama, and Yo! Vinyl Richie alternate between listening and voicing their own thoughts, as expressed in spoken word, sound, and film. Blurring the distinctions between subject and narrator, speaker and respondent, creator and viewer, American Recordings, Act II: American Frequency explores how the layers of personal experience accrue over time and in dialogue with individuals who vary in proximity and perspective.