'too quiet to hear': Performance by Amiko Li + Conversation with Aki Sasamoto

too quiet to hear is a spoken word performance that consider quietness as a level of sensitivity. In this performance Li intertwines his personal stories into a sonic experience through the use of text, voice, and the slippages of meaning. In “The Wild Swans” by Hans Christian Andersen, a princess must remain quiet and knit stinging nettles from the graveyards into shirts to save her brothers. To what extent can an accent be sexy, otherness be exotic?

Following the performance, Li will engage in a conversation with artist Aki Sasamoto, concerning the translation of experiences via images, words, performance and deep play with the fluidity and fuzziness of language.

Amiko Li is a visual artist working in photography, installation, and performance. His works take an aleatoric approach to cultural nuances and interrogate the ethics of language and representation through strategies of reenactment, exchange and mistranslation. Most recent exhibition and performances include: Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China (2022); By Art Matters, Hangzhou, China (2022); The Shed, New York, NY (2021); House of Electronic Arts, Basel, Switzerland (2021); UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2020); University of Georgia, Athens, GA (2020); Anthology Film Archive, New York, NY (2019) and Abrons Arts Center, New York, NY (2018).

Aki Sasamoto works in sculpture, performance, video, and more. In her installation/performance works, Aki moves and talks inside the careful arrangements of sculpturally altered objects, activating bizarre emotions behind daily life. Her works appear in gallery spaces, theater spaces, and odd sites. Her works were shown at SculptureCenter, the Kitchen, Chocolate Factory Theater, Whitney Biennial 2010, MOMA-PS1, New York; Aichi Triennale 2022, National Museum of Art-Osaka, Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, Yokohama Triennale 2008, Japan; Busan Biennale 2022, Gwangju Biennial 2012, South Korea; Shanghai Biennale 2016, China; Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016, India; Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands; the 59th Venice Biennale, Italy.