Ei Arakawa

Ei Arakawa, Performance People series, 2018. Installation view at the Playhouse theatre, Liverpool Biennial 2018. Photo: Thierry Bal

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Ei Arakawa (b. 1977, Fukushima, Japan) currently lives in New York, USA. Arakawa works in performance, sculpture and installation, often making hybrid and multimedia works that are situated within or spun off from live, choreographed events. His complex and multilayered performance works are typically collaborative and subvert conventions by breaking the boundaries between audience and performer, resulting in spontaneous live actions. Sometimes incorporating other artists’ works as source material, his projects rethink traditional notions of authorship, subjectivity, temporal and geographical context, while also interrogating the politics of collaboration. Arakawa’s recent experimentations with the form of musical theatre involve the staging and choreography of art-historical research, as well as the production of spectacular 'paintings' made with LED lights and digital sound.

Across the first floor bar of the Playhouse theatre, Ei Arakawa presents a new version of his project Performance People for Liverpool. Using the astrological natal charts of personified performance artworks, Arakawa presents an analysis of seminal works including Yoko Ono's Cut Piece, Tony Conrad's 7360 Sukiyaki and Andrea Fraser's May I Help You? on an LED screen, posters and audio.

Recent exhibitions include Skulptur Projekte Münster, Germany (2017); 9th Berlin Biennale, Germany (2016); Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany (2015); Gwangju Biennial, South Korea (2014); Whitney Biennial, New York, USA (2014); Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, USA (2013); 55th Venice Biennale, Italy (2013); Tate Modern, London, UK (2012); 30th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (2012); and MoMA, New York, USA (2012).

Ei Arakawa at Liverpool Biennial 2018

Performance People series, 2018
LED strips on hand-dyed fabric, metal, LED transmitter, power supplies, SD cards, audio and prints on paper
Exhibited at the Playhouse theatre