The Lewis Center for the Arts’ Programs in Theater and Visual Arts at Princeton University, in collaboration with the Department of Art and Archaeology, will present Washitales, an exhibition of work made from traditional Japanese washi paper by renowned visual artist Kyoko Ibe. The exhibition will be on view January 30 through March 5 in the Hurley Gallery at the Lewis Arts complex on the Princeton campus and is presented in conjunction with the Lewis Center’s theatrical presentation of Felon: An American Washi Tale by Freedom Reads founder, lawyer, and poet Reginald Dwayne Betts on March 2 through 4. Additional events including a book launch of Ibe and Thoron’s The Way of Washi Tales and artists’ talk are planned as part of Ibe’s residency. The exhibition is free and open to the public with no tickets required; performances of Felon require tickets through McCarter Theatre Center.
Felon: An American Washi Tale strives to re-imagine paper. A solo performance that begins with the pages of a book being slid into a cell, traverses stoves made of toilet paper, “kites” from a father, handwritten affidavits, legal complaints, handmade paper and certificates of pardon, the variety of papers reveal what is possible and burdened by prison. Betts weaves traditional theater, poetry, fine art, and Japanese paper making aesthetic principles into a meditation on his own experiences of incarceration and his legal work to free individuals still in prison. This reflection on the challenges of living in the shadow of mass incarceration is a story of violence, love, and fatherhood. Directed and developed by Elise Thoron, this “washi tale” moves literally and metaphorically beyond Betts’ own life, unwrapping the disturbing ways that prison touches us all. Felon: An American Washi Tale is part of a decade-long series of collaborations between Thoron and Ibe around the ideas and resonances of washi, which they discuss in their forthcoming book The Way of Washi Tales.
Paper kites created by visual artist Kyoko Ibe made from traditional Japanese washi paper surround Reginald Dwayne Betts on the set of Felon: An American Washi Tale. Photo by Barbara Johnston / courtesy Freedom Reads
The set for Felon is designed and created by Ibe from 1,000 squares of “prison paper” that papermaker Ruth Lignen constructed from the clothes of men Betts first met serving time together in prison. Ibe also incorporated letters from men Betts had lived with in prison, friends who were still locked up and with whom he corresponded, helping them find freedom through parole. The paper kites — “kites” is a slang moniker for letters received from family while in prison — hang suspended from floor to ceiling in various groupings around the spare stage set. The Washitales exhibition in the Hurley Gallery includes work related to the theatrical set for Felon along with other works created by Ibe building on traditional techniques for Japanese hand papermaking.
Washi is traditional handmade paper. In 2nd-3rd century BCE, Chinese artisans developed a special technique of making paper using tree fiber as the raw material, and this became the prototype for the production of washi. The development of papermaking in Japan traces back to the 7th century and emerged due to the country’s geo-ecological conditions, climate, religious beliefs, and the culture of its people. Throughout Japanese history, paper has played an important role in daily necessities including clothing and materials for homes, along with its use in rituals, ceremonies, and festivals. In the 20th century, most everyday paper is made by machines but there are a few hundred remaining Japanese families who engage in traditional papermaking — people who are living cultural treasures for not only Japan, but the world.
“Paper, perhaps surprisingly, is a key part of the prison experience,” Betts notes. “Paper gets you in and sometimes gets you free…Transforming the paper into art complexifies the experience, makes it more than loss, more than the account for crimes and prison time that seem to stalk.”
The series of events around University performances of Felon: An American Washi Tale, including the exhibition, is organized by Jane Cox, Director of the Program in Theater and lighting designer for Felon. Cox invited Betts and Thoron to develop Felon at the Wallace Theater on campus in summer 2021. The production has since begun touring around the country to correctional facilities and universities. The Princeton production serves as a central focus for many collaborations and conversations around social justice and incarceration and will be a significant collective event for several communities. Among the many collaborators on campus, in addition to Art and Archaeology, are the Office of the Vice President for Campus Life, the Center for Human Values, School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University Library, Campus Conversations on Identities, the Humanities Council, Students for Prison Education, Abolition and Reform, the faculty and staff of The Prison Teaching Initiative, and Trenton Arts at Princeton, and presented in partnership with McCarter Theatre.
“Felon is an example of what theater does best,” said Cox, “It is serving as a way to bring people together; it is acting as a focal point for community conversations and collaborations (on campus and off); and the piece itself is a lens for exploring and humanizing significant contemporary injustices. We are particularly excited that this project has allowed our faculty, students, and staff to enter into relationships with many other campus units and departments, as well as work side by side with justice-impacted communities and many other off campus communities.”
“This exhibition, which interweaves history, art history, theater, and the fine arts, is an example of the exciting interdisciplinary collaborations that are possible at Princeton,” adds Rachael DeLue, chair of the Department of Art and Archaeology. “Kyoko Ibe’s work draws on a centuries-long tradition of papermaking while transforming the practice in extraordinary ways through constant experimentation with the medium and its limits. In the case of her designs for Felon: An American Washi Tale, paper becomes an eloquent part of an urgent conversation about incarceration, justice, and human dignity. Likewise, the work on view in the exhibition illuminates just how much paper has to say.”
Director and dramaturg Thoron, who has partnered with Ibe on a series of Washi Tale collaborations apart from Felon, describes how Ibe’s artwork first drew her to washi paper and inspired these new theater works: “Washi asks you to be present for a few moments to touch the ephemera of daily life. It also invokes rhythms and rituals folding history quite naturally into a blank page. I am fortunate to find others compelled by Kyoko Ibe’s work and the medium itself to join us in this exploration.”
Thoron and Ibe launched their collaboration with Betts on Felon: An American Washi Tale in 2020.
Kyoko Ibe began her artistic career employing handmade paper at a time when the material was used exclusively for traditional Japanese arts and crafts. After completing a master’s degree at the Kyoto Institute of Technology in 1967, Ibe continued working with paper and has been invited to more than 20 countries for exhibitions, workshops, lectures, teaching, and as a jury member. Her work pushes the limits of paper, transforming a craft into an art form. She also creates large scale installations, a wide range of interior products, stage sets, and costumes. Ibe’s approach to paper combines a respect for tradition with technological experimentation. She has collaborated internationally with many theater groups and received an Isadora Duncan Visual Design Award for the stage set for a Tandy Beal and Company production in 1987. She has created stage sets and costumes for Recycling: Washi Tales, written and directed by Elise Thoron, which was commissioned by and had its world premiere at the Krannert Center for Performing Arts at the University of Illinois in 2011 and then traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Bing Theater. In 2016, Recycling: Washi Tales was performed at the Asia Society Theater and in 2017 in the gallery at Stockton University, where Ibe also had a solo exhibition. Ibe is professor emerita of Kyoto Institute of Technology, and she served as an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois from 2008 to 2013. Ibe is the recipient of many national and international awards including the 2019 Kyoto City Cultural Merit Laureate Award, and she was selected to be a special advisor for the Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan in 2009. She is the author of many books in English and Japanese.
Playwright, director, and translator Elise Thoron works cross-culturally within the United States and abroad developing new work. Her productions incorporate the work of fine artists, musicians, poets, and are often performed in multiple languages. In 2009 Thoron traveled to Japan for three months to work with Ibe, developing the script and staging for Recycling: Washi Tales and observing paper making in various sites throughout the country. Thoron is also co-founding artistic director of the highly successful theater literacy program Literature to Life, now in its third decade nationwide, adapting books into verbatim solo performances with facilitated discussion and workshops to spark a passion for reading in young people.
On February 23 at 6:00 p.m., the Lewis Center and Department of Art and Archaeology will host an artists’ talk and book launch with Ibe and Thoron in the Hurley Gallery marking the publication of The Way of Washi Tales, a new book by Ibe and Thoron that celebrates their long history of collaboration. Earlier in the day, students in the Program in Visual Arts and Department of Art and Archaeology will have the opportunity to participate in a papermaking workshop.
Visit the Felon at Princeton page to learn more about the theatrical presentation of Felon: An American Washi Tale, the development of the project, and related events at Princeton during March 2-4, 2023.
The Hurley Gallery is an accessible venue on the mezzanine level of the Lewis Arts complex, reachable via the Arts Tower elevator. Guests in need of access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at LewisCenter@princeton.edu at least one week prior to the event date.
All visitors to Princeton University are expected to be either fully vaccinated, have recently received and be prepared to show proof of a negative COVID test (via PCR within 72 hours or via rapid antigen within 8 hours of the scheduled visit), or agree to wear a face covering when indoors and around others.
Visit the Lewis Center website to learn more about the more than 100 public performances, exhibitions, readings, screenings, concerts, lectures, and special events, most of them free, presented each year by the Lewis Center for the Arts.
