For the sake of offering some info for those who don’t already know me, I share the following:
I consider myself a sensorialist, a text walker, a maker, and one who engages in acts of writing — an artist who works with the felt and the found, and who is drawn to slow conversations and deep listening. I have a fondness for the tangible experiences of bookmaking; love the labour and nuances involved in video or audio editing; and am often led to the water’s edge, to thinking about the relationships between history, language, and location.
Synchronous moments and uncanny experiences have found their way into my research and studio practice over the years, and following their crumbs I’ve often found what I couldn’t find or discover through other routes. Life is full of questions, challenges, and wondrous delights — and practice to me, feels like a process of living with these things — like a process of living with and within everyday poetics.
While I mostly work on solo projects, there is much within the collaborative process that I love and that I am grateful for.
Currently I live in Calgary, Alberta, having moved back here in the summer of 2016. It makes sense, in a way, that I’ve returned since I’m continually drawn to the Rockies and the terrain along the Bow River and I still consider myself a prairie farm kid. The Alberta landscape is in my blood it seems, and once again I find the skies here filling me with daily awe. While I live here, I continue to also have a fondness for the sounds of Montréal and Washington, D.C. and for the waters and history around Vancouver. And although I have never lived in Boston, Fenway also has a special place in my heart (yes, I’m a huge Red Sox fan).
I’ve previously taught, mostly part time, at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta; at Concordia University in Montréal, Québec; at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, British Columbia; and at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. While working with students over the years has been such a wonderfully rich experience, circumstances and challenges have more recently shifted the focus of my days.
As I continue with my creative practice, I find myself endlessly curious, to see where these days might lead.
I can be reached at: baco.ohama@mac.com