
Photo by Craig Schwarz
Big Head (2001-2003)
Big Head revisits the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II and considers current-day treatment of those perceived as “the enemy now”, including Muslim Americans, Arab Americans, and South Asian Americans.
A work that has been in the making since early 2001, this poetic, interdisciplinary performance offers up letters from Rohwer Internment Camp in Arkansas, responds to recent hate crimes and imprisionments, and considers the coalition-building between these various communities during times of crisis. A non-linear montage of images, clay animation, movement, and text, Big Head evokes the mysteriously winding path of collective memory, and how we interpret our past to provide hope for the future.
Denise Uyehara, performer and director
Tamadhur Al-Aqeel, dramaturgy
Performance includes testimonies by Edina Lekovic, Shady Hakim, Lulu Emery, Tamadhur Al-Aqeel, and Lillian Nakano
Supported by the California Civil Liberties Public Education Project