The artist known simply as Kasumi is an experimental filmmaker who collages found film footage into cascading waves of visual delight. Elegant, visceral, and at times jarring, her films are complex masterworks requiring serious dedication. Her 2014 film Shockwaves was constructed from over 27,000 film clips and required three years to make—a remarkable achievement.

In addition to being a fine art filmmaker, Kasumi is a renowned musician. She has also developed apps, created large-scale installations, shown her work at the Cleveland Museum of Art, won a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship and the Cleveland Arts Prize, and Zygote Press was honored to host her as an Artist-in-Residence (AIR) last summer.

Each year Zygote’s local AIR program brings established Northeast Ohio non-printmaking artists into our collaborative printmaking studio. Working with Zygote’s teaching artists, they learn printmaking processes and produce a body of work over several months. Despite the limitations of the pandemic, Kasumi was able to safely work in Zygote’s socially-distanced shop, where she learned how to make screen prints. “I briefly dabbled in printmaking at art school, but this was my first experience with silk screen. Being at Zygote was an utterly amazing experience…I even built a pandemic emergency silk screen studio at my house for when I can’t be at Zygote,” she said.

Kasumi described the prints made during her residency as the two-dimensional manifestation of her film: “I was interested in exploring methods that would best represent the meta-montage, layered style of my media work on a two-dimensional surface and ultimately develop a portfolio of prints that would serve as the physical manifestation of the themes, concepts, and imagery from my film and video art.” Familiar faces from pop culture, manga, and historical figures make appearances in various compositions, overlaid with text in several languages and a dizzying array of pattern and shapes. Colorful and frenetic, Kasumi’s silk screen prints are full of life and as spirited as her films.

Zygote’s local AIR program usually culminates with an exhibition featuring the body of work created while in residency, but due to the pandemic, it was rescheduled for this spring—the exact dates are yet to be determined (Zygote was still closed to the general public when this went to print). Please visit zygotepress.com to get the latest information, including event listings, workshops, and more.

To learn more, visit kasumifilms.com

UPCOMING VIRTUAL CLASSES:

MULTI-BLOCK RELIEF PRINTMAKING WORKSHOP: INSTRUCTOR BEN MUÑOZ | 1-2:30PM SATURDAY, MARCH 27 & APRIL 3