Current artist-in-residence Marina Lisa Komiya was in conversation with Dot Zhihan Jia, Curator (Studios & Residencies), to discuss Komiya’s activist work in Japan, practising and embodying queer theories and their ongoing research into Japanese Knotweed and gendered beer brewing.
The event began with a screening of Reproductive Garden (2023), a film made by Komiya and their collaborator Chihiro Suzuki. Using the concept of a regulated house, the film compares residential land on which development is impermissible due to current Japanese building codes, to law restricting same-sex marriage.
This event was part of the public programme for Komiya’s ongoing research project Reproductive Garden, which interrogates the archetypes of English and Japanese gardens and how they can act as societal models through which different people can coexist.
Film running time: 59 minutes
Japanese with English subtitles
The film contains brief nudity.
Marina Lisa Komiya (b. 1992, Atlanta, US) is currently based in Tokyo, Japan. Komiya's focus is to explore new methods of reproduction through various mediums such as installation, project, biotechnology, performance, video and the management of spaces. All their works use their own body to practise queer time theory. They are also a host of a queer artists platform, "FAQ?".
Marina Lisa Komiya, Reproductive Garden, 2020. Installation view at Gallery TOH. Images courtesy of the artist.
