Tokyo-based Taku Unami is a musician and composer who works with a range of instruments, from the orthodox guitar, mandolin to the avant-garde assorted vibrating objects, amplified. Unamis performances draw inspiration from a variety of influences, including horror movie soundtracks John Carpenters in particular, the supernatural and black metal. These dark and layered references are countered by ultra- minimal improvisation and a formal sensibility that embraces both the banal and the absurd. For Images, Unami will present an improvised performance work called The Curse of Vacancy, a shadow play rendered in the silhouettes of cardboard boxes. Though rooted in the spare experimentalism that characterizes his musical practice, The Curse of Vacancy is less a work of music than it is a stripped-down puppet show that utilizes mundane objects to produce a series of stark tableaus.

Co-presented with Japan Foundation and TD Bank.