Photo by Steven Miller
Seattle based Degenerate Art Ensemble, led by Haruko Crow Nishimura and Joshua Kohl, makes performances inspired by punk, comics, cinema, nightmares, and fairytales driven by live music and their own style of physical theater and butoh-inspired dance. They combine projected imagery with the movement and sound to create new mythologies, revealing other dimensions, and challenging reality in a multi-dimensional storytelling experience. Degenerate Art Ensemble has shown their work throughout North America and Europe known for their large-scale dance and theater projects, concerts, and site-transforming experiences. In this unique collaboration, Degenerate Art Ensemble’s artists, designers, and technicians join the Juni One Set collaboration for the creation of Boy mother / faceless bloom.
Photo by Bruce Clayton Tom
Joshua Kohl (he/him) is a composer, musician and sound designer and co-directs Degenerate Art Ensemble. His approach to music is dedicated to the exploration and proliferation of genre-free music that utilizes all of the available tools of music-making, from classical instruments to electronics and new inventions - with a goal of reaching the hearts and souls of the listener through vibrational resonance. He was the recipient of Creative Capital, Artist Trust Innovators Award, MAP Fund, NEA and Music Theatre Now awards. His work for string quartet and choir was performed by the Kronos Quartet at their 40th anniversary concert in Seattle and at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. In addition to his work with Degenerate Art Ensemble he is also a passionate conductor of the music of his peers including a Lincoln center concert of the work of composer Jherek Bischoff with singer David Byrne. He is deeply honored to work with this exceptional team of collaborators.
