art
The artwork featured here are site specific collaborations with artists, dancers, designers, and other musicians.
Ancestry in Progress
An animated collage of sound and image exploring the complex struggles of becoming a proud Asian-American. Sound Design by Ritsu Katsumata. Visuals by Stafford Hiroshi Smith.
Presented at the 2025 International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities in Hilo, Hawaii
Exhibited at the Bucknell University 103 Exhibition Space, Holmes Hall November - December 2025
PS415 at Site:Lab
Project Story 415 Franklin is an interactive installation that uses storytelling to connect with people, understand needs and create a dialogue. Inspired by the building, 415 Franklin, this installation told the story of its roots as the Grand Rapids Christian High School to the Department of Health Services, to its current evolution into a church. The videos featured members who engaged with the building in all three of its incarnations. The photographers told stories of the surrounding and its community from the past, present to the future. The interactive community table invited viewers to share their own hopes and dreams for the future of the building.
COLLABORATORS:
Photographers: Chris Bain, Matt LaVere, Jacob Nuss, Rosa Maria Zamarron
Videography: Eric Johnson, Aaron Smith, Jasmine Smith
Designers: Kait Smith, Greg Ward, Adrienne Young
6Exist : Deva
An experimental music video, dancers acting the roles of Six Paths of Existence. Inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the dancers and musicians imagine guiding the consciousness from hell, hunger, animal, human to demi god and goddess in pursuit of nirvana.
This video features Iris Rivkin-Gainer as "DEVA", the goddess. Directed by Ritsu Katsumata, Cinematography by Eric Faden, Music by Ritsu Katsumata and Phil Haynes.
COLLABORATORS:
Dancer: Iris Rivkin-Gainer
Cinematography: Eric Faden
Percussion / Drums : Phil Haynes
2008 Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
ArtPrize 2015
In the Beginning
"In the Beginning" is a musical composition that portrays the 7 days of creation, performed as a duet with animated illustrations by Yolanda Gonzalez.
COLLABORATOR:
Illustrator / Animator: Yolanda Gonzalez
ArtPrize 2009
Fearscape
Fearscape is a live duet between electric violin and digital camera projections at the Old Fed Building during the ArtPrize competition in Grand Rapids, MI.
COLLABORATOR:
Installation Art and Live Video: Stafford H Smith