Bend - a live performance by Kimi Maeda

Using sand, shadow, and projection Bend tells the story of two men interned in a Japanese American relocation camp during World War II: the artist’s father, an Asian Art historian suffering from dementia, and the subject of his research, Isamu Noguchi, a half-Japanese-half-American sculptor.  Support for Bend was made possible by the Tapp’s Arts Center, the Jim Henson Foundation, the South Carolina Arts Commission, and the Kō Festival of Performance.

Many years ago Robert Maeda began writing a book about the modernist sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Though perhaps not the best known artist of his time, Noguchi’s work appears in a wide range of spaces and contexts both public and private: Piedmont Park’s playground in Atlanta, the relief mural of the Associated Press Building at Rockefeller Center, the giant Red Cube in New York’s Financial District, set pieces for Martha Graham, and countless lamps, tables, and stone sculptures. Having already made a name for himself as an artist, however, Noguchi voluntarily
entered a Japanese American internment camp during World War II.  It was in that camp that Robert Maeda, a nine-year-old boy at the time, observed Noguchi working on his sculptures. Years later Maeda became an Asian art historian and cited that time in camp as a defining moment in his life. Although he published several articles and gave numerous lectures on Noguchi’s work and family life, his book was never completed. As dementia gradually overtook Maeda’s life, his daughter, Kimi, was inspired to take on the task he started decades ago, exploring the life of Noguchi in relation to his (and her) own personal history. Using sand as her canvas, Kimi transforms image after image, combining live feed projection of these drawings with archival footage.