Dancer Masako Fukaya and drummer Tetsu Nagasawa at Atelier Q in Setagaya, Tokyo — 4/18/23
Photos by Christopher Pelham
#butoh #improvisation #dance #dancephotography
Maeve Gilchrist with Kaoru Watnabe's Bloodlines ensemble, 1/10/25 at NYCWJF, photos by Christopher Pelham
Described by one critic as “a phenomenal harp player who can make her instrument ring with unparalleled purity”, Maeve Gilchrist has taken the Celtic (lever) harp to new levels of performance and visibility.
Born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, and currently based in New York, Maev‘s innovative approach to her instrument stretches its harmonic limits and improvisational possibilities. She is as at home as a soloist with an internationally renowned orchestra as she is playing with a traditional Irish folk group or using electronic augmentation in a more contemporary, improvisatory setting.
#nycwjf #maevegilchrest #jazzphotography #musicphotography #womeninmusic #bloodlines
The great Becca Stevens
at Public Records, 4/10/24
photos by Christopher Pelham.
#beccastevens #womeninmusic #musicphotography #singersongwriter #publicrecordsnyc
mmm "Moe Ishii" (g/v) and Fumi Endo (p/v)
at UrBANGUILD, 4/30/26.
Photos by Christopher Pelham
Tokyo-based Moe Ishii writes songs in Japanese and English. Her new album, "Burnt," was just released.
/ABOUT.
Fumi Endo is a Toko-based pianist and sometimes vocalist whose solo CD "Tsumetai Hikari, in Warm Blue" was released by Ftarri in 2023.
https://linktr.ee/e23227
#urbanguild #kyoto #musicphotography #concertphotography #womenmusicians #womeninmusic
Suzu, FOuR DANCERS vol.348 at UrBANGUILD, 4/24/26
photos by Christopher Pelham
Suzu (Supakarn Masunthasuwan) is a Thai-born, Kyoto-based artist and illustrator whose varied works draw power from the occult and the sensual. Drawn to the restorative and meditative elements of dance, she began her movement practice in 2022 with pole dancing, and later expanded her interest toward experimental performances in 2025. Suzu’s dance philosophy is guided by bodily memory, where movement is something that is immanent; ebbing and flowing, rising and collapsing to the body’s natural rhythms.
スズ（メサンタスワン スパカン）はタイ生まれ、京都在住のアーティスト・イラストレーターであり、オカルトとセンシュアルなものから力を引き出している。ダンスの回復力と瞑想的な要素に惹かれ、2022年にポールダンスでダンス活動を始め、2025年には実験的なパフォーマンスへ関心を広げた。彼女は身体記憶に導かれ、既に身体に内在する自然なリズムに合わせて満ち引きし、湧き上がり、崩れていく。
/suzu-zz
#suzu #thaidancer #kyoto #urbanguild #experimentaldance #contemporarydance #dancephotography
Yangjah, FOuR DANCERS vol.348 at UrBANGUILD, 4/24/26
Photos by Christopher Pelham
Yangjah
Dance / Butoh / Video / Installation / Poetry / Permaculture
Yangjah is a Korean diaspora artist of third-generation Jeju heritage, born and raised in Osaka, Japan, where she is currently based and working internationally.
Working primarily through dance and performance, her practice moves across poetry, voice, language, and video, exploring expressions that emerge from the body. Grounded in butoh and Asian body-based practices, she develops improvisation-centered works that dissolve boundaries between performer, audience, and space, weaving together sequences of moments arising from what she calls an “empty body.”
http://linktr.ee/yangjah
#yangjah #butoh #dancephotography #UrBANGUILD #kyoto
Exhibition artists Daniela Kostova and Satomi Shirai and curator Christopher Pelham will discuss the exhibition’s core themes with moderator Sae Shimai-Cardonnel, director of MOMENT Contemporary Art Center and former co-director of KG+. Reframing “motherhood” as a lived threshold—emerging between the private and the public, child-rearing and self-care, the body and the environment—the conversation will consider how parenting can be understood as a creative path. Through their respective practices, the speakers will discuss how child-rearing connects to ecology, current social realities, and the collective consciousness of their local contexts; what kinds of responsibility can be assumed as mothers; and how the intimacies of family life are intertwined with the wider world. The talk will be conducted in English and Japanese with consecutive interpretation by Miho Tsujii.
/event/260510/
#kgplus #kgplus2026 #artisttalk #kyotographie #kyotographie2026
地理的背景やこと生活経験を横断しながら、作家たちは「母であること」を、家庭生活と文化、環境、記憶、そして社会的責任を結びつける創造的な力として捉えている。
Across geographical backgrounds and life experiences, writers reveal motherhood as a creative force that connects family life with culture, environment, memory, and social responsibility.
/event/life-is-art-is-motherhood-is-art-kyoto/
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https://kgplus.kyotographie.jp/exhibitions/2026/daniela-kostova-aline-muller-zoe-marieh-urness-katie-heller-saltoun-satomi-shirai/
@kgplus #kgplus #kyotographie #womenartists #womenphotographers #exhibition #photographyexhibition #kyoto #womeninthearts #motherhood #crsnyorg
