Ilana Halperin will give a talk at Akiyoshi-dai Museum of Natural History on Sunday 24th February from 1.00-2.30pm. This event is accompanied by Keijiro Suzuki’s creative workshop at Akiyoshidai Karst Lookout from 3.00-4.00pm. Free and no booking required. All welcome.

For more info on the events, please visit:
https://www.facebook.com/events/398308574062556/

lana Halperin: The Rock Cycle (Yamaguchi)
Cross-disciplinary project between Yamaguchi and Scotland

The Rock Cycle (Yamaguchi) is a new cross-disciplinary international project between Yamaguchi and Scotland by Glasgow-based artist Ilana Halperin with Fukuoka-born Aberdeen-based curator Naoko Mabon. Building on Halperin’s exploratory research residency in 2018 at Akiyoshidai International Art Village supported by Creative Scotland and Hope Scott Trust, the project now shifts into full-scale activity.

Drawing inspiration from the geological rock cycle, the project highlights the remarkable landscape of Yamaguchi, reflecting an upcoming bid to designate Akiyoshidai as an International Geopark. Within this art-science based investigation, Halperin will make a new body of work utilising materials and methods unique to Yamaguchi, which will culminate in solo exhibition in Yamaguchi in Autumn 2019.

Back in Scotland, Halperin will create new work responding to Yamaguchi and the geological and archaeological context of Orkney. In 2020/21, Pier Arts Centre in Orkney will host an exhibition featuring Halperin’s new works, in conversation with thematically resonant works by Yamaguchi-based artists Yoshihisa Nakano and Keijiro Suzuki. Each ‘chapter’ in the project will be accompanied by an outreach programme, including an educational workshop, roundtable and field trip. A limited edition bilingual artist publication will be produced.

Yamaguchi Prefecture is known for its geological significance - notably through Akiyoshidai, the highest concentration of karst formations in Japan, and Akiyoshido, the nation’s largest and longest limestone cave, located in an area designated as a quasi-national park.

Through the lens of Yamaguchi and Scotland, The Rock Cycle (Yamaguchi) considers new ways of imagining our relationship to the natural world.