Opening Reception - Becoming The Sound - Toshi Makihara

Toshi Makihara Instagram Videos 2023-2024

Presented in Black Box Curated by Victor Vieira-Branco

A selection of miniature videos by Toshi Makihara, originally intended for Instagram.

About the Artist
Toshi Makihara‘s (b. 1960) performance work effortlessly blends percussion with dance-like body movement. Through a rigorous, systematic, and practiced process of experimentation and repetition, Makihara seeks out sounds that he and others have never heard before, experimenting with touch, force, and speed, and always remaining aware of sound’s relationship to the body. He uses a variety of percussion instruments, as well as objects found in nature and everyday items, such as metal or machine parts. Makihara first studied percussion in his home country of Japan, learning the importance of breathing and posture. He has also studied Japanese butoh—a performance style that involves playful, grotesque imagery and slow, controlled motion—with dance master Kazuo Ohno and others. After years spent performing with dance and music ensembles, Makihara seeks to collaborate with Philadelphia-area choreographers and to go beyond binaries of movement and sound. “The intention is to transcend the traditional dancer-musician paradigm,” he says, “and to realize a truly integral sphere.”

About the Curator
Victor Vieira-Branco is a vibraphonist, composer, improviser, and presenter, based in Philadelphia, PA after spending much of his life in and around São Paulo, Brazil. In Brazil he worked primarily in Trio Repelente, with drummer and percussionist Mauricio Takara and bassist Rodrigo Hara. Currently, he leads and writes for Bark Culture, a trio featuring bassist John Moran and drummer Joey Sullivan. He is also a member of Philadelphia’s longest-standing artist-run gallery, Vox Populi, where he curates and presents an improvised music series World Again.