Alan Nakagawa worked as the artist-in-residence for Kaya Press for over a year. He read all 68 of their books and decided to create a micro opera for each work, a short interdisciplinary piece (the term was first invoked 40 years ago at Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles). This exhibition showcases the result of his diligent work, taking the form of video, sound, puppets, music boxes, and more. The Micro Operas are recorded soundtracks, music videos, vibratory sound experiments, and interactive music boxes with contributions by Cirilo Domine (viola), Alison De La Cruz (vocals), Elizabeth Ito (vocals), Pattie Lin (vocals), Jean Park (vocals), Patrick Shiroishi (saxophone, percussion), Robin Sukhadia (tabla, harmonium, percussion), and Umi Hsu.
Alan Nakagawa is an interdisciplinary artist with archiving tendencies. Primarily working with sound and often incorporating various media and working with communities and their histories, Nakagawa has been working on a series of semi-autobiographic sound-architecture/tactile sound experiences utilizing multi-point audio field recordings of historic interiors: Peace Resonance: Hiroshima/Wendover combines recordings of the interiors of the Hiroshima Atomic Dome (Hiroshima, Japan) and Wendover Hangar (Utah); Conical Sound: Antoni Gaudi/Simon Rodia combines recordings of the interiors of the Watts Towers (Los Angeles) and the Sagrada Familia (Barcelona, Spain). Premiered in 2023, Point of Turn is his first vibratory sound work, involving the human voice and the seminal 1970s British rock band 10cc’s hit “I’m Not in Love.” Nakagawa was the first artist-in-residence for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and the Los Angeles County Library and is currently the artist-in-residence at the CSU Dominguez Hills Gerth Archives & Special Collections.
Umi Hsu (they/them) was born in Taipei and moved to Virginia at age twelve. Hsu is a trans nonbinary sound artist, musician, and writer whose practice is driven by inquiries about sound and migratory communities. Working to create social change through sound, Hsu leads LA Listens, a community engagement project on the city’s changing sonic and social ecology, and mobile placemaking collective Movable Parts. They also perform and write songs about the melancholic postcolony in their L.A.–based ghost pop band Bitter Party.
