Momose Aya: Interpreter

A museum exhibition by artist Momose Aya, who uses video and performance techniques to explore questions of gender and sexuality

From December 10 (Sat) 2022 to June 4 (Sun) 2023, the Towada Art Center is pleased to present Interpreter, a solo exhibition by Momose Aya. Taking as her theme the imbalances that arise in our communications with others, Momose explores questions around the body, sexuality and gender, mainly in video works. At this exhibition she unveils a new sound installation on the theme of female voice actors, titled Etude for a Voice Actor. Etude for a Voice Actor features just a “voice” with no accompanying animation showing the appearance and gestures of the character that would make it possible to discern their sex. This “voice” divorced from any visuals manifests as a fluid presence transcending sex. In addition to this latest work, Interpreter features a number of earlier offerings by the artist that show relationships with others of different ages and sexes, and the invisible presences and suppression behind these relationships. These include Social Dance, which depicts misunderstandings arising in communication between a deaf woman and a hearing man; and Fixed Point Observation [With My Father] in which Momose’s father gives oral responses to 173 questions written by the artist, only to find those responses starting to diverge from what he originally intended.
Momose’s title for her exhibition refers to the way an interpreter, in the role of intermediary, proceeds by taking a few words, and trying to imagine the feelings of the speaker, strings together words in another language. It also evokes the multiple layers that evolve within communication, for example the way a conversation can end up progressing in accordance with the interpreter’s misreading, and the speaker taking in the words of the interpreter. It also calls to mind how the voice goes beyond one’s own body and to and from another’s, in the manner that the blind female itako shamans of the Tohoku region serve as mediums (interpreters), or conduits for dialog between the spirits of the dead, and those who seek contact with them.
Interpreter offers the opportunity to turn your ear to some “voices” whose existence has been suppressed and denied.