Flightless Cranes | Tobenai Tsuru
Opening Reception: July 9th, 2019 6-8PM
Press Release
Baltimore, MD (June 12, 2019)THE GALLERY IN BALTIMORE CITY HALL is pleased to announce Flightless Cranes | Tobenai Tsuru, a group exhibition featuring six (6) Japanese, American, and Japanese-American artists whose work is based in generational experiences and traumas. Flightless Cranes | Tobenai Tsuru will be on view in the North Gallery from July 9th until August 23, 2019 and celebrates the union of Baltimore City and our connection to our Sister City, Kawasaki, Japan.
Spanning the North Gallery, the multifaceted composition of Flightless Cranes | Tobenai Tsuru presents a broad range of perspectives including the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the duality of a Japanese-American heritage, Japanese Internment in the 1940’s and echoes to the present, the poetic nature of the Japanese language, and the current conflict in Okinawa. The variety of these meditations is united by not only the artists heritage but also by their acknowledgement and study of both the past and the present. The phrase tobenai tsuru, a crane that is unable to fly, serves as a powerful allegory of this historically hidden, or sometimes publicly discounted, perspective.
Curator Liz Faust shares, “Flightless Cranes | Tobenai Tsuru contemplates and celebrates the poetic nuance, fortitude, and unique resonance of this distinct history and experience as artists continue to confront events happening today.” Featured artists are Aimi Chinen, Ahraun Chambliss, Mary Champagne, Kei Ito, Sanzi Kermes, and Ayaka Takao.
Sister Cities International was created in 1956 by President Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower envisioned an organization that could be the hub of peace and prosperity by creating bonds between people from different cities around the world. By forming these relationships, he reasoned people of different cultures could celebrate and appreciate their differences and build partnerships that would lessen the chance of new conflicts.
As TGIBCH continues its curatorial exposé of the best and most promising artists working in Baltimore City with national and international promise, curator, Kirk Shannon-Butts, shares, “These artists represent the bridge to our Sister City, Kawasaki, Japan and all of the cultural and societal connections required to truly to transcend our historic conflicts.“
