Yonsei f*ck f*ck is an ongoing series of butoh-ish performances and videos.

In the postwar Japanese economic development, the literal Imperialism of wartime Japan has been replaced with a cultural imperialism, where capitalist iconography like Pokemon, Sailor Moon, and Hello Kitty are proliferated abroad as commerce. Those of us growing up abroad use these cultural exports to fill in the blank where information from our family is omitted, which I have always found unnerving even though I am definitely one of those-types-of-people. Yonsei f*ck f*ck (yonsei meaning fourth-generation) conjures an Asia-futurism through the elevation these cultural artifacts to the status of holy, where they trickle down in Pika-goodness.

Yonsei f*ck f*ck pt. 11 was presented as a part of Not Your Mother’s Pan-Asian Festival at Abrons Art Center (New York, NY) on September 25, 2021.
Performed by gorno (Glenn Potter-Takata), evan ray suzuki, and Kimiko Tanabe.
Curated by Kevin Toyo, Japanese Folk Dance Institute of New York.
Lighting by Kia Rogers.

Photos by Shintaro Ueyama.

Yonsei f*ck f*ck pt. 13 was developed, in part, through a CUNY Dance Initiative residency at Lehman College.

This project was made possible, in part, through The Movement Research Artist-in-Residence Program, funded, in part, by the Jerome Foundation; Dance/NYC’s New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, made possible by The Andrew M. Mellon Foundation; the Harkness Foundation for Dance; the Davis/Dauray Family Fund; and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.