Biography

Nina Horisaki-Christens received her Ph.D. from the Department of Art History and Archaeology and the Institute for Comparative Literature in Society at Columbia University in 2021. Her research focuses on the intersection of art, media, urbanism, translation, and social engagement in Japan, Asia, and the Asian diaspora. Horisaki-Christens’ dissertation, “VIDEO HIROBA: Contingent Publics and Video Communication in Japan, 1966-1981,” took up the birth of the term bideo (video) in Japanese art discourse of the early 1970s through the work of the Tokyo-based collective Video Hiroba. Using the lens of critical translation theory, the project examined how a rejection of “expression” in favor of “communication” evoked new images of community, positioning Video Hiroba at the intersection of local and transnational discussions of video’s possibilities for addressing intersecting crises in urban, media, environmental, and art institutional landscapes.
Horisaki-Christens was a 2017 Fulbright Graduate Research Fellow, a visiting scholar at Sophia University’s Institute for Comparative Culture from 2017-19, and in 2021 worked with Collaborative Cataloguing Japan on an Asian Cultural Council-funded research and preservation initiative entitled “Interrogating Ecology: 1970s Media and Art in Japan.” She assisted with the Japan Society’s 2019 exhibition Made in Tokyo: Architecture & Living, 1964/2020, served as Research Assistant for Gutai: Splendid Playground at the Guggenheim Museum, was a Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellow in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program, and worked as Assistant Curator and Interim Programs Manager at Art in General. Additionally, she has contributed texts and translations to publications produced by MoMA, Art Tower Mito, ArtAsiaPacific, the Mori Art Museum, Keio University Art Center, Bunka-cho Art Platform Japan, Smarthistory, Hyperallergic, among others.

Professional Activities

Education

  • Ph.D., Art History, Columbia University in the City of New York, 2021
    Concentration: Japanese Modern Art History
    Certificate: Institute for Comparative Literature and Society
    Dissertation: “VIDEO HIROBA: Contingent Publics and Video Communication in Japan, 1966-1985
    Advisor: Dr. Jonathan M. Reynolds
  • M.Phil., Art History, Columbia University in the City of New York, 2016
    Exam Fields: Japanese Modern Art History, Twentieth Century Art (Western), Media Studies & Cultural Studies
    Committee Members: Dr. Jonathan M. Reynolds, Dr. Branden Joseph, Dr. Marilyn Ivy
  • M.A., Art History, Columbia University in the City of New York, 2015
    Thesis: “Savage Eye: Primitivism in Hosoe Eikoh’s Kamaitachi”
    Advisors: Dr. Jonathan M. Reynolds, Dr. Rosalyn Deutsche
  • Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, Curatorial Program, NY, 2013
    Exhibition Co-curated: “Maintenance Required” at The Kitchen, NY (included catalogue)
  • B.F.A., Sculpture and Japanese Language & Literature, Washington University in St. Louis, 2004
    Minor: Psychology, magna cum laude
  • Certificate, Stanford Kyoto Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, Japan, 2002

Select Professional Activities

Please email directly to request full Curriculum Vitae, including work experience, professional service, languages, skills, and references

2022

  • “Disentangling the Strands of Nakaya Fujiko’s Early Video: Fifty years after Friends of Minamata Victims—Video Diary” (tentative title), Millennium Film Journal, special issue ed. by Barbara London, (pending, expected publication Oct 2022)

 

2021

  • “Shiraga Kazuo, Challenging Mud (Doro ni idomu),” Smarthistory.org (online), July 2021
    Short essay on Nakaya Fujiko’s Friends of Minamata Victims—Video Diary, Signals: The Politics of Video [exhibition catalogue], Museum of Modern Art, NY, 2021 (upcoming)

 

2020

  • “Video as Biological Cycle: Nakajima Ko’s Ecological Vision,” Collaborative Cataloguing Japan (online, republished with minor edits), December 2020

 

2019

  • “When Video Promised a Sci-Fi Future,” ArtAsiaPacific, March 2019
  • “Video as Biological Cycle: Nakajima Ko’s Ecological Vision,” Keio University Art Center publication for Nakajima Ko solo exhibition, September 2019

 

2018

  • “Nakaya Fujiko’s Contributions to Early Japanese Video,” Resistance of Fog: Fujiko Nakaya [solo exhibition catalogue, curated by Junya Yamamine], Art Tower Mito, Japan, winter 2019

 

2017

  • “Violent Hygiene and Contextual Dirt,” essay for Masaru Iwai monograph, Japan, 2017
  • “Following the Mists and Mysteries of Fog Art,” co-author with Junya Yamamine, Hyperallergic [online], Sept 19, 2017

 

2015

  • “Mondai wo kakaeru fūkei: 1960 nendai kōhan kara 1970 nendai shōtō no nihon no shashin sakuhin ni miru seijiteki shukansei,” in MAM Documents 001: Torauma to yūtopia—sengo kara gendai ni okeru ajia bijutsu no sōgo eikyō kankei, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 2015. [documentation of Mori/Tate Symposium]
  • “Unbounded Identities: Asserting Cultural Friction through Performance,” in Historically Historic Historical History of Communism (Yoshinori Niwa artist monograph), Art-Phil, Japan, 2015.

 

2014

  • “Mono-ha,” “Gutai,” and “Jikken Kōbō” articles for Art in Time: A World History of Styles and Movement, Phaidon Press, UK, 2014.

 

2013

  • “Maintenance and Dependency,” Maintenance Required (exhibition catalogue), Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, 2013.
    Captions and rights for Gutai: Splendid Playground. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 2013. Authors: Ming Tiampo and Alexandra Munroe.

 

2012

  • Guest Blog, Art21 online, June 2012

 

2011

  • “Performing Between Action and Script,” Dispatch, Independent Curator’s International, October 2011.
    “Erratic Anthropologies” in Performa09: Back to Futurism. New York: Performa, 2011.

 

2010

  • “Mirror of the Material World.” The Undiscovered Antique. New York: Art in General, 2010. (Institute for Museum and Library Services funded catalogue on Shana Moulton)
  • “Burn Baby Burn.” Night Store. New York: Art in General, 2010. (IMLS-funded catalogue on Guy Benfield)
  • “Intense Neutrality.” It’s grey, it’s grey. New York: Art in General, 2010. (New Commissions catalogue on Dave Hardy)
  • “Sympathetic Movements.” The Timber. New York: Art in General, 2010. (New Commissions catalogue on Julia Oldham)
  • “The Fractured Whole.” Monuments. New York: Art in General, 2011. (IMLS-funded catalogue on Redmond Entwistle)
  • “Disney-fied Suburbia.” Phase IV. New York: Art in General, 2011. (IMLS-funded catalogue on Rancourt/Yatsuk)

 

2009

  • Curatorial Essay for Anna So Young Han Residency Exhibition, Flux Factory, NY
 
 

2022

  • Collaborative Cataloguing Japan’s Members Viewing: Morihiro Wada, CCJ Member Viewing Platform, online, March and April 2022

 

2020

  • Neo-Ornamentalist Redux, SPRING/BREAK Art Show 2020, New York

Artists: Tammy Nguyen, Naomi Kawanishi Reis, Takashi Horisaki

 

2019

  • Visual art for Made in Tokyo: Architecture and Living 1964/2020, primary curators Yukie Kamiya and Atelier Bow-Wow, Japan Society, NY (fall 2019, role: Exhibition coordinator for visual art, artist selection in process)

 

2013

  • Maintenance Required, Whitney ISP Curatorial Program exhibition, co-curated with Andrea Neustein, Victoria Rogers and Jason Waite, The Kitchen, NY

Artists: Michael Bramwell, Goldin+Senneby, Ashley Hunt, Masaru Iwai, Yve Laris Cohen, Sam Lewitt, Park McArthur, Salvage Art Institute, Karin Sander, Taryn Simon, Pilvi Takala, and Mierle Laderman Ukeles

  • The Hollow Center, Smack Mellon, NY

Artists: Anida Yoeu Ali and Mary Jane Villamor, Corey Escoto, Elana Mann, MTL, Huong Ngo and Hong-An Truong in collaboration with the Acting the Words is Enacting the World collective, Michala Paludan, Sreshta Rit Premnath, Christine Rebet, Dread Scott, and Mary Simpson

 

2010

  • Mostly Shadows, Joyce Kim and Carlos Roque, Art in General, NY
  • Liquid Door, Isola and Norzi, co-curated with Andria Hickey, Art in General, NY NY, May 2010 (collaboration with New York Aquarium)
  • More Passive than Every Passivity, Bozena Koncic Badurina (Eastern European Residency Exchange), Art in General, April 2010
    Winter Exhibitions including Distant Drum, Double Bill guest curated by Redmond Entwistle, and Anti-Prow, Art in General, NY NY, January 2010

Artists: Lukasz Jastrubczak (Eastern European Residency Exchange), Redmond Entwistle, Mary Billyou, Suzanne Goldenberg, Rafael Sánchez, Kathleen White, Peter Rostovsky, Olav Westphalen

  • Video Art Marathon: Identity, co-curated with Michael Chavez, Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO

Artists: Julia Brown, Brendan Fernandez, William Lamson, Lilly McElroy, Martin Murphy, Laura Napier, Adie Russell

 

2008-2010

 

  • AV Elevator Program, Art in General, New York NY

Featuring: Julie Lequin, Jonathan Thomas, Martin Murphy, Peter Mundwiler, Yoshinori Niwa, Hong-An Truong, Judith Hoffman, Audra Wolowiec

 

2009

  • Erratic Anthropologies, Art in General, New York NY, November 2009
    Artists: Guy Benfield, Shana Moulton, Yatsuk/Rancourt
  • The 8 Train and The Timber, Art in General, New York NY, June 2009
    Artists: Josh Melnick, Julia Oldham (respectively)
  • On the Ideal of Permeable Barriers, Art in General, New York NY, March 2009
    Artists: Dave Hardy, Amy Yoes, John Hawke, Michael Konrad, Virginia Poundstone
  • Human Craters, BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn NY, Jan 2009
    Artists: Vincent Como, Robert de Saint Phalle, Alex Dodge, Jason Ferguson, Manuela Paz, Eugenie Tung, B.J. Vogt, Hillary Wiedemann
  • Interface:Nature, NurtureArt Gallery, Brooklyn NY, April 2009
    Artists: Jillian Conrad, Lauren Davies, Nicholas Des Cognets, Lisa Dillin, Taro Hattori, Katerina Jerinic, Harri Kallio, Miranda Maher, B.J. Vogt, Markus Wetzel and Åsa Elzen
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2022                

  • “Analog Transpositions: The Transnational Roots of Media Criticality in 1970s Japanese Women’s Videowork,” AAS 2022 Conference, Virtual and Honolulu, HI, March 24-27, 2022

 

 

2021                

  • “Interrogating Ecology” new research initiative, including public and private panels, hosted by Collaborative Cataloguing Japan and funded by the Asian Cultural Council, online December 2021 (initiative co-organizer, panel chair, and panelist)
  • “Interrogating Ecology: 1970s Media and Art in Japan,” Panel Chair and presenter “Nakaya Fujiko’s Ecological Video: Resisting the Japanese Information-Polluted Archipelago,” CAA 2021 Conference (Chair and panelist, accepted but withdrawn due to changes in CAA policies, held remotely through the Mary Griggs Burke Center, Columbia University in May 2021)

 

 

2020                

  • “Indeterminacy and Eastern Cultural Traditions in 1970s Japanese Video,” CAA Conference, Chicago, IL, February 15, 2020

 

 

2019                

  • “Mediating Urban Space: 1970s Tokyo through Video Hiroba’s Lens,” Institute for Comparative Culture, Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan, July 18, 2019
  • “Japanese Video and the Problem of Public Space,” CAA Conference, New York, February 13, 2019

 

2018                

  • “Spatial Dimensions of Video Communication: Video Hiroba’s Contribution to 1970s Video Experimentation,” Cultural Typhoon, Ryukoku University, Kyoto, June 23, 2018
  • “Video Communication: Artists Redefining Media Publics in 1970s Japan,” Towards Post-Media Studies in Asia Conference, Post-Media Research Network and Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts, January 28, 2018

 

 

2017                

  • Presentation on Curatorial Practice to art students at Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan, Dec 10, 2017
  • Closing reception talk with Masaru Iwai for the exhibition「親密の遠近法」(Perspectives of Familiarity) at Takuro Someya Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, Oct 14, 2017
  • Participant in British Association of Japanese Studies Translation Workshop, Oxford University, UK, Apr 2017

 

 

2016                

  • “A Politics of Contingency: Video and Yamaguchi Katsuhiro’s Futeikei bijutsu,” Cambridge-Columbia Symposium in the History of Art, Columbia University, NY, Apr 8, 2016
  • “Toward the Village: Sanrizuka as a reconsideration of the terms of Japanese protest in the late 1960s,” Crisis and Critique Graduate Student Conference, Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, Columbia University, NY, Apr 4, 2015

 

 
 

2015                

  • Panel discussant for “Place and Modern Art in East Asia and Abroad,” Columbia University Graduate Conference on East Asia, Columbia University, NY, Feb 21, 2015

 

 

2014                

  • “A Troubled Landscape: Political Subjectivity in Late 1960s and early 1970s Japanese Photography,” Trauma and Utopia: Interactions in Postwar and Contemporary Art in Asia Symposium, hosted by Tate Research Center: Asia-Pacific and Mori Art Museum, Toranomon Hills, Tokyo, Oct 9, 2014
  • “Mura-e: Sanrizuka and a Shift in Documentaries of Protest,” PoNJA-GenKon 10th Anniversary Symposium, Japan Society, New York, Sept 13, 2014

 

 

2013                

  • Curatorial Talk at FabLab, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea, Aug 2013
  • Visiting Curator, LMCC Swing Space on Governor’s Island, NY

 

 

2012                

  • Consultant, Doctor’s Hours, New York Foundation for the Arts, Brooklyn NY
  • Application Review Panel, Triangle Workshop Residency, Brooklyn NY

 

2011                

  • “The Artist and the State,” interview with Conor McGrady at Miyako Yoshinaga Art Prospects, New York, NY
  • Hunter College MFA Student Association Visiting Critic, CUNY, NY
  • Visiting Curator, Flux Factory NY
  • Visiting Curator, Triangle Residency, Brooklyn NY

 

 

2010                

  • “Artist Talk: Bozena Koncic Badurina,” Art in General, New York, NY. In conversation with Bozena Koncic Badurina
  • Visiting Curator, LMCC Swing Space, NY
  • Visiting Curator, Flux Factory NY

 

2009                

  • Actions For Urban Spaces Panel Discussion, Art in General, New York, NY. Moderator for discussion with artists John Hawke and Alex Villar, as well as Institute for Urban Design Director Olympia Kazi
  • “Julia Oldham in conversation with Amy Berkov,” Art in General, New, York NY. Moderator of discussion with Julia Oldham and botanist Dr. Amy Berkov
  • “The Visual Arts Unplugged: A Survival Guide Panel Discussion,” Council on the Arts and Humanities of Staten Island, Staten Island, NY. Participant with artist Tattfoo Tan and Gallerist John Leo.
  • “Applications of Medical Imaging Technology in Contemporary Artistic Practice,” BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. Moderator of discussions with artists Robert de Saint Phalle and B.J. Vogt.

 

2021

  • “Observing the Unconscious,” by Idemitsu Mako, translation for Bunka-cho Art Platform Translation Series, July 2021, https://artplatform.go.jp/resources/readings/R202103
  • “The Postwar ‘Avant-Garde’ Art Movement and Women Artists, 1950s-1960s (2005)” by Kokatsu Reiko, translation for Bunka-cho Art Platform Translation Series, March 15, 2021, https://artplatform.go.jp/resources/texts/202003

 

2019

  • “Seventeen Photographs,” by Gotō Meisei, co-translated with Mycah Brazelton-Braxton, originally for 2018 issue of Review of Japanese Culture and Society: Josai University, now for upcoming book edited by Dr. Ayelet Zohar (details and publication date pending)

 

2017

  • “From Design to Environment: “Art and Technology” in Two 1966 Exhibitions at the Matsuya Department Store” by Tsuji Yasutaka, co-translated with Reiko Tomii for Review of Japanese Culture and Society: Josai University vol 28 (December 2016): 275-296

2021-23            

  • Mary Griggs Burke Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship, Columbia University, NY

 

2020-21

  • Mary Griggs Burke Center Eighth Year Service Fellowship, Columbia University, NY

 

2019-20

  • C.V. Starr-AHAR Departmental Dissertation Fellowship, Columbia University, NY

 

2019

  • GSAS Research Excellence Dissertation Fellowship, Columbia University, NY
  • Visiting Researcher, Sophia University, Institute for Comparative Culture, Tokyo, Japan

 

2017-18

  • Fulbright US Student Award to Japan, Japan-U.S. Educational Commission, J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, and the Institute for International Education, USA
  • Visiting Researcher, Sophia University, Institute for Comparative Culture, Tokyo, JP

 

2016-17

  • The Riggio Fellowship in Art History, Columbia University, NY

 

2014, 2016

  • JAA Honjo Scholarship Award, NY

 

2015

  • Innovative Teaching Summer Institute Certification, Columbia University, NY

 

2013

  • Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, Curatorial Residency, Seoul, Korea

 

2012-13

  • Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellow, Whitney Museum Independent Study Program NY

 

2011

  • LMCC Governor’s Island Swing Space Resident Artist, NY

 

2008-09            

  • Lori Ledis Emerging Curatorial Fellow, BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn NY

 

1999-2003

  • National Merit Scholarship