Biography

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Ibuki Kuramochi is a Japanese-born interdisciplinary artist.

Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Paris, Sydney, Taipei, and Rome.

Since 2016, she has studied the uniquely Japanese modern/contemporary dance Butoh from Yoshito Ohno at the world renowned Kazuo Ohno Butoh Dance Studio. Kuramochi visualizes her performances and body movements as two-dimensional works and video works, exploring the poetic choreographic physicality of Butoh dance and the human body in anatomy.

Kuramochi's artistic practice incorporates Butoh dance, performance, video, installation, and painting, and is deeply rooted in the body, the resonance of thought and body, metamorphosis and post-human feminism.

In 2019, she was featured as Artist of the Year on the front cover of LA WEEKLY's special issue " PEOPLE 2019”. Recent exhibitions include work at the Torrance Art Museum, New York Hall of Science, Spring Break Art Show LA, Craiova Art Museum Romania, and artist lectures at the art college in Tokyo and the NY Film Academy.

She is currently living and working in Los Angeles .

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Artist Statement 
 

My interdisciplinary art practice centers on exploring the expressive potential of the human body across various mediums such as video art, digital painting and Butoh dance performance. Rooted in a critique of patriarchal ideals, my work aims to reimagine the female form as a locus of empowerment. Influenced by Butoh, a post-WWII Japanese dance form that rejects Western modernization, I challenge traditional norms by foregrounding the phenomenal female body and invoking feminist concepts like cyborg manifest.

Drawing from post-human feminism, my work delves into the intersection of technology and the body, exploring themes of mutability, transformation, and agency. Inspired by my own experiences, including vivid nightmares, my art embodies a visceral representation of the female experience, reclaiming autonomy over bodily representation. Through the convergence of physicality, sexuality, and transformation, my work offers an alternative perspective on the body in today's virtual world, prompting reflection on gender, identity, and societal constructs.

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