Artist and Curator-led Tour and Talk
About this Event
The tour will explore the nuances of the exhibition and the narratives that unfold across Ishihara’s films, following the lives of two dancers in Tokyo whose worlds of music, nightlife and desire come alive after dark.
This event enters the exhibition’s nocturnal world, where animal calls, distorted club music and dream-like imagery unsettle the boundaries between reality and fantasy. The tour will explore how Ishihara’s nocturnal animals, alongside the stories of Eri and Catalina, move through spaces where performance, labour, intimacy and sociality collide.
A conversation between the artist and curator will follow, offering an opportunity to delve further into the ideas, processes and experiences behind the exhibition, including Ishihara’s personal journey of artistic practice and her connection to the alternative worlds explored in
Umi Ishihara
Umi Ishihara (b. 1993, Tokyo, Japan) is based in London and Tokyo. She gained an MA in Artist’s Film & Moving Image from Goldsmiths, London in 2024, and a BA in Fine Arts (Inter Media Art) from Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan in 2018. Recent solo exhibitions include Thundergod, Gallery Butaiura, Tokyo (2024); Gravity and Radiance, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo (2021); Mire of Dickhead Demon, TAV Gallery, Tokyo (2017).
Recent group exhibitions include Busan Biennale, Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, (2026) Home Sweet Home, Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa; Struggle, Fukuoka Art Museum (both 2024); Home Sweet Home, The National Museum of Art, Osaka (2023); Coming of Age, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2022); Bloomberg New Contemporaries, South London Gallery (2019).
Ishihara’s works have been screened internationally at venues including Centre Pompidou, ICA London, BFI Southbank, Locarno Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, CPH:DOC. In 2024 she was awarded a GQ Global Creativity Award. She is a participating artist at the 2026 Busan Biennale and her work will be featured in 2027's Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum.
Rosa Tyhurst
Rosa Tyhurst is a curator from South Wales and based in South London. She currently works as curator at Gasworks, London, where she collaboratively devises and delivers a programme of exhibitions, residencies, public programme and participation projects. Prior to Gasworks, she worked at Nottingham Contemporary and at Spike Island, Bristol. Rosa has curated exhibitions and programmes internationally, at the Wattis Institute, San Francisco (US); Cloaca, San Francisco (US); Royal Nonesuch Gallery, Oakland (US) and DREI, Köln (DE). In 2019 she participated in Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo’s Young Curator’s Residency Programme in Turin, Italy. Her writing has been published in Art Monthly, Elephant, Hyperallergic, Contemporary Art Reviews Los Angeles, ArtPractical, and she has contributed to publications on Veronica Ryan, Candice Lin and Peggy Ahwesh. Rosa is a graduate of California College of the Arts’ MA in Curatorial Practice.
Image credit: Umi Ishihara, 'Nocturnal Melody', installation view at Gasworks, London, 2026. Courtesy of Gasworks.
esea contemporary is the UK’s only non-profit art centre specialising in presenting and platforming artists and art practices that identify with and are informed by East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) cultural backgrounds.
esea contemporary is situated in an award-winning building in the heart of Manchester, home to one of the largest East Asian populations in the UK. Since its inauguration as a community-oriented visual arts festival in 1986, esea contemporary has continuously evolved to establish itself as a dynamic and engaging space for cross-cultural exchanges in the British art scene, as well as in a global context.
esea contemporary aims to increase the visibility of contemporary art practices from the East and Southeast Asian communities and their diasporas. It is a site for forward-thinking art programmes that beyond exhibitions also include commissions, research, residencies, publishing, and a wide range of vibrant public events. esea contemporary values creativity, compassion, interconnectedness, and collectivity in implementing its mission.
Learn more at: www.eseacontemporary.org
Photo by Joe Smith.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 0.00 to GBP 5.00
