Persistence of Vision | Kasumi
Betty And Howard Taylor Main Gallery
July 12 – September 14, 2024
A retrospective of artworks from the late 1990s to present, Persistence of Vision highlights Kasumi’s ongoing dedication to experimentation. While best known for her digital videos and films, Kasumi’s staggering range of methods and media are on display for this show, including collage, printmaking, painting, installation, and more.
Repeated subjects, gestures, and expressions connect the works across the wide variety of media. “My work is about memory and the echo chambers of memory—a perpetual feedback loop of patterns that creates consciousness,” the artist explains. “The repetition of characters becomes a representation of a specific gesture or emotion creating larger symbols and metaphors, ultimately becoming its own language.” Kasumi calls us to question dominant culture by examining our collective actions and values through the compelling, dynamic use of distorted pop-culture imagery and patterns.
Kasumi is a Cleveland-based digital media artist who uses contemporary technology to create videos and films, immersive installations, prints, and collages. Her work is driven by her interest in conceptualizing the movements, expressions, and gestures from which we construct our current reality. Kasumi’s raw material for her artwork are clips of moving images gathered from the scraps of mid-20th Century mass media and early 80’s Japanese popular culture. The artist’s many accomplishments include the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship; the creation of artworks for institutions like the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, the Lincoln Center, and The Cleveland Museum of Art; gifs for The Eric Andre Show; and interactive art-making apps for smart phones. For more information about Kasumi and to view her artwork, visit kasumifilms.com or on Instagram @kasumifilms.
Did you know?
Most of the artwork on display at Summit Artspace is for sale.
Click on the artwork images for pricing and more information about each piece.
If you would like to purchase any art, please visit a staff member or volunteer at the front desk, or email natalie@summitartspace.org.
1- On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies | $2,000
Digital video, Edition of 10, 2018
2- Scatenato | $10,000
Silk screen print and found materials en collage, archival digital print, 2024
96″ x 34.5″
3- Advise and Consent | $4,000
Lenticular sculpture, 2023
14″ x 27″ x 27″
4- Mind Control | $1,200
Silk screen print, archival digital print and found materials en collage, 2019
17″ x 18″
5- Our Spring Will Come | $900
Silk screen print, archival digital print and found materials en collage, 2019
16″ x 20″
6- Bystander | $3,500
Silk screen print, archival digital print and found materials en collage, 2021
30″ x 36″
7- Hero Worship | $3,500
Digital print, silk screen print and found materials en collage, 2021
30″ x 36″″
8- Eccentric Fixation | $3,500
Silk screen print, archival digital print and found materials en collage, 2021
30″ x 36″
All the collages in this show mix silk screen and archival digital prints derived from still images of my own films with samples of Japanese manga and extraneous found materials. The art of collage and film montage share several striking similarities, despite being different mediums. Both involve the assembly of separate elements to create a cohesive whole. The power of both lies in the juxtaposition of disparate elements, creating new meanings, contrasts, or thematic connections that wouldn’t exist if the elements were presented in isolation.
Furthermore, I use both collage and montage to weave narratives that transcend conventional boundaries. The convergence of diverse elements sourced from various origins— photographs, text, found objects, cultural references— mirrors the complexity of contemporary existence and challenges established meanings. Through the selection and arrangement of elements, I’m able to communicate messages, evoke emotions, and explore abstract ideas. In film montage, the temporal aspect is crucial, as the sequence of shots dictates the flow of time and rhythm of the piece. Although collages are static, they can suggest a sense of time or movement through the arrangement and interaction of visual elements.
-Kasumi
I’ve always sought to reveal the essential elements through which we understand and convey meaning and emotion. Through my work I’ve explored the profound, yet subtle, meaning conveyed by non-linguistic forms, especially those, such as gesture, associated with the body. It seemed natural to explore lenticular technology as another way to portray a single gesture.
Lenticular printing technology incorporates multiple images that are interlaced and then covered with a lenticular lens. This lens directs light in such a way that different images are visible from different perspectives. The interplay of light and image in a lenticular portrait offers a unique, immersive experience, inviting viewers to engage with the artwork in a more interactive and personal way.
This and other lenticular works in the show were originally developed with funding from John S. and James L. Knight Foundation on a project I did with Diane Davis at Kent State University.
-Kasumi
9- The Venus Effect | $3,500
Silk screen print, archival digital print and found materials en collage, 2021
30″ x 36″
10- Escape to Nowhere | $10,000
Lenticular print, 2015
36″ x 36″
11- Viewfinder | NFS
Archival digital print, 2013
Collection of Dr. Keith Fitch
20″ x 24″
12-Wanderer | $3,500
Silk screen print, archival digital print and found materials en collage, 2021
30″ x 36″
13-Dirty Symphony | $1,500
Unframed archival digital print, artist’s proof, 2006
44″ x 30″
14- Borderlines | POR
Digital video, 2022
15- Surfacing | $4,000
Digital video, 2022
Instead of being confined to a single flat surface Borderlines, originally installed at The Sculpture Center—a woman making a simple turn—is experienced from multiple viewpoints simultaneously. As the video content shifts and changes over time, it introduces a fourth dimension, blending time with the three spatial dimensions of these varied planes. Viewers wandering around these surfaces discover new facets of the video from different angles and perspectives. This interaction with the space and the ever-changing visuals creates a dynamic, immersive experience that challenges traditional ways of seeing and representing the world. It invites viewers to embrace a fragmented, multidimensional view, understanding the subject as a sum of its parts.
-Kasumi
Surfacing is the continuation of a project which began as part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Keithley Symposium on Monuments and Memory. Presented in its final form at The Sculpture Center, the work draws on the political and symbolic parallels between women and water. The project reimagines how and what we memorialize to make visible previously hidden or unspoken histories.
Taking the form of a digital kinetic sculpture, Surfacing depicts the moving image of a single woman multiplied infinitely and arrayed so that, seen from a distance, the myriad of images appear as a singular structure with streams of water flowing across its surfaces, histories and potentialities undulating within.
-Kasumi
16- The Drowning | POR
3 channel video, 6 channel audio, 2010
17- Terminal Velocity | $5,000
Acrylic and ink on shaped canvas, 1998
64″ x 71″
18- Jimmy | $850
Color xerography series, artist’s proof, 2004
24″ x 32″
19- Confrontation | $12,000
Lenticular print, 2015
46″ x 46″
20- Yes | $500
Lenticular print, 2017
16″ x 15″
21- No | $500
Lenticular print, 2017
16″ x 15″
22- Mr. Split Personality | $800
Silk Screen print, archival digital print and found materials en collage, 2016
20″ x 20″2
23- Unprepared Dissonance series | $600
Silk screen print, 2019
20″ x 20″
24- Restless Ecstasy | $2,000
Digital video, Edition of 10, 2024
25- Technical Aids | NFS
Digital video, 2001
26- Encounter with Destiny | $5,000
Acrylic paint on framed luan, 2020
48″ x 48″ x 2″
27- Fierce Fighter | $5,000
Acrylic paint on framed luan, 2020
48″ x 48″ x 2″
28- Let’s Go! | $5,000
Acrylic paint on framed luan, 2020
48″ x 48″ x 2″
29- We Come in Peace | $5,000
Acrylic paint on framed luan, 2020
48″ x 48″ x 2″
30- Observance | $4,000
Digital print, silk screen print, found materials and Vantablack en collage, 2022
60″ x 46″ x 2″
31- Glitched Manga 1 | $850
Silk screen print, 2019
40″ x 26″
32- Glitched Manga 2 | $850
Silk screen print, 2019
40″ x 26″
33- Infinite Jest | $8,000
Digitized 35mm film in mirrored jewel box, wood frame, HD monitor, bespoke electronics, 2018
22″ x 14″ x 4″
34- O Mio Babbino Caro | $650
Color xerography series, artist’s proof, 2004
17″ x 32″
35- Analog | NFS
Kinetic sculpture, 2015
36- Mr. Reynolds | $2,000
Digital video, Edition of 10, 2017
37- Murmurations | $2,000
Digital video, Edition of 10, 2018
38- Woman in White | $3,500
Digital video, Edition of 10, 2017
After five years of working on Shockwaves, I began experimenting with single source material. In artworks from The Perpetual series (Woman in White, Mr. Reynolds, Murmurations, Linguistics, On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies) single gestures are multiplied and staggered and exploded through time—not just a deconstruction of individual gestures, but a representation of what becomes of the sum of its parts—with themes and patterns emerging, associations and potentialities that undulate through space and time.
-Kasumi
39- Linguistics | $12,000
Digitized 35mm film in mirrored jewel box, wood frame, HD monitor, bespoke electronics, 2017
9″ x 12″ x 8″
40- Derivatives of a Higher Order | $5,000
Ink and acrylic on shaped canvas, 1998
39″ x 75″
41- Zen Go (Before and After) | $4,500
Ink on paper, 1999
30″ x 40″
This artwork and others in the show—Derivatives of a Higher Order, Terminal Velocity, Zen Go—draw inspiration from the byobu, or folded screens viewed from an angle, creating the illusion of three-dimensional space, and the ubiquitous partitioned shoji screens. They suggest that action unfolds both before our eyes and beyond them.
The concept of Jo-ha-kyū, which roughly translates to “beginning, break, rapid,” introduces a tempo that starts gradually, gains momentum, and concludes swiftly. This notion of modulation and dynamic movement is central to the essence of these pieces.
I wanted to emphasize the creative journey over the final product, prioritizing my state of mind reflected in spontaneous brushstrokes and uninhibited gestures. These works emphasize the subconscious, using intuition to connect to a deeper self and channeling emotions through automatic movement. These works are also an embrace of the negative, allowing empty space to become an active participant in the composition.
-Kasumi
42- History of Time | $10,000
Acrylic on shaped canvas, 1998
72″ x 108″
43- Take Me to Cloudy Rhythm | $750
Silk screen print, Edition of 3, 2020
36″ x 30″
44- Take Me to Cloudy Rhythm | $4,500
Video loop in frame, 2006
45- Five Portraits | $3,000
Digital video, Edition of 10, 2014
46- Book of Whisper Marionette | $2,000
Unframed archival digital print, artist’s proof, 2006
57″ x 44″
See more of Kasumi’s work around Akron thanks to Curated Storefront!
Traveling south on Main St., view Psychometric Afternoon at the Standard Savings Building at 174 S. Main St.; Mr. Reynolds at the O’Neil’s Building, 222 S. Main St.; Orbital Debris at the Polsky Building, 225 S. Main St.
This exhibition is supported in part by
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
See the Summit Artspace exhibit schedule for show details.
Have questions? Here is our Frequently Asked Questions page.
