The pioneering film and video artist Takahiko Iimura divides his time between Japan and New York, but last summer he was in the Bay Area making a new film. He returns to present that work along with a representative selection of his films and videos made over the last forty years. Conceptual concerns dominate his work, from the materiality of his found-footage On Eye Rape (1962, 10 mins, Silent, B&W/Color, 16mm), the sensuous Ai (Love) (1962, 10 mins, Music by Yoko Ono, B&W, 16mm), and the hand-scratched poem of White Calligraphy (1967, 11 mins, Silent, B&W, 16mm); to his later investigations of language and perception in I Love You (1973–78, 5 mins, B&W, Beta), Seeing / Hearing / Speaking (2002–03, 5 mins, B&W, Beta), based on a sentence taken from Jacques Derrida, and I am (Not) Seen (2003, 5 mins, Color, Beta). Iimura describes his most recent film, Ma: The Stones Have Moved (2003–04, 8 mins, Silent, B&W/Color, Beta): “Ma signifies an interval or space between objects, a traditional concept of Japanese aesthetics. This animated video borrows images from Ma: Space/Time in the Garden of Ryoan-ji, shot by myself in the Zen garden in Kyoto, 1989. The film images are traced into a computer screen following the method of ‘Ippitsu-ga,' the one-stroke drawing within a breath of traditional Japanese painting.” Also screening: Self Identity (1972–78, 1 min excerpt, Color, Beta).

Iimura will also present Ma on July 22 at Kala Art Institute, where he was the recipient of a Kala Fellowship. For information, phone (510) 549-2977.