Bye Bye Baby Sayonara Bye Bye,
Video Installation/performance
Bye Bye Baby Sayonara Bye Bye, performance/video, installation
This video performance was based on the experience of having lived for several years in the Koganecho area in Yokohama, and my recent move to another apartment in the greater neighbourhood. I filmed the performance in my home, and it is a combined reinterpretation of two popular songs from the 1950s and 1960s - one from a musical featuring Marilyn Munroe and the other by enka (a Japanese dramatic ballad) singer Harumi Miako. Both songs are about saying goodbye, and reflect upon my own experience of moving, as well as historical changes in the city. They also are an interpretive expression of women entertainers in time and across cultures, and stem from my own memories of being exposed to the original songs that I brought together in this work. The work was exhibited in the 2020 edition of the Koganecho Bazaar in conjunction with Yokohama Triennale. As a video installation, viewers can feel the narrowness of the space that was once inhabited by women who worked in the sexual industries in the area as well as imagine how emotionally and physically difficult it must have been.
