Led by installation artist Taro Hattori, in collaboration with ARTogether, Pedaling Point seeks to spark conversations between refugees and non-refugees, helping them to bridge gaps of understanding and isolation through dialogue, singing, and shared narratives.
In the project’s first phase, Hattori and ARTogether will pair refugees and non-refugees, inviting them to explore their personal stories and life journeys – visually and verbally on paper as well as through recorded songs, each chosen, shared, and sung by the refugee and non-refugee participants together. This research will lead to gallery-based and outdoor art exhibitions that feature six confessional-like, enclosed structures, each attached to a bicycle to highlight the restricted mobility of refugees. Audience members will enter these enclosed spaces to experience the stories and songs.
Taro Hattori is an interdisciplinary installation artist who has shown his work nationally and internationally. He currently teaches at California College of the Arts. For Hattori, Pedaling Point will be a deeper exploration of themes addressed in other recent installations that sought to find points of connection between divided and isolated communities. Other collaborating artists will include artists Patricia Rojas-Zambrano and Christine Wong Yap and musician Sahba Aminikia.
Based in Oakland, ARTogether organizes art workshops and inclusive social gatherings, supports refugee and immigrant artists, and educates the public about refugees’ stories in the Bay Area and around the globe.
Portrait photo of Taro Hattori by Tina Case