Exhibition: m/Other by Ibuki Kuramochi

Jun 4

Written By DAB

Exhibition Dates:
June 18 – July 31, 2025

Opening Reception:
June 18, 2025
7:00 PM

Live Performance:
July 10, 2025
7:00 PM
RSVP

Location
Japan Foundation Los Angeles
5700 Wilshire Blvd #100
Los Angeles, CA

In her latest exhibition m/Other, artist Ibuki Kuramochi invites us into a deeply personal and poetic meditation on kinship, care, and the maternal — seen not as a fixed identity, but as something fluid, complex, and sometimes fractured.

Moving between the human and non-human, organic and artificial, Kuramochi reimagines motherhood as more than biology. Drawing inspiration from the writings of Donna Haraway and the Japanese practice of preserving umbilical cords, m/Other asks: What does it mean to “mother” not just a child, but a memory, a wound, or even another species?

Kuramochi’s work is rooted in Butoh, the postwar Japanese dance form known for its visceral movement and emotional intensity. Through performance, video, and installation, she creates a space where the body becomes a vessel for loss, legacy, and transformation — haunted by both personal and inherited memories.

The exhibition is also shaped by grief. Kuramochi’s dog, a constant companion during the creation of this work, passed away just before the show’s completion. His absence, and the love that remains, become part of the piece. In m/Other, the mother figure flickers in and out: ghost, cyborg, caretaker, memory.

The slash in the title—“/”—signals a break, a blur, a multiplicity. It opens up space for thinking about lineage and connection in new ways: across generations, species, and time.

m/Other is not just about loss, but about reimagining what care can look like now.

Ibuki Kuramochi is a Japanese-born interdisciplinary artist who is currently based in Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Paris, Sydney, Taipei, and Rome.

She incorporates the Japanese modern/contemporary dance Butoh, performance, video, installation, and painting in her art and explores concepts around the body, the resonance of thought and body, metamorphosis, cyborg feminism, and post-human feminism.

Read our interview with Ibuki to learn more about her art, creative process, and inspirations.