Yoko Ishiguro is a performance maker, performer and actress. She studied psycholinguistics in University of Tsukuba and participated in the theater company Su-punk Dan, YUBIWA Hotel, and the techno performance unit Grinder Man in Japan.

During that period, she performed in various kinds of places like a temple, a bar, a club, a storehouse, a strip club and galleries so that she learned how to “play” with the sense of distance between her body, the audience and the space and also, their meanings. Since then, her challenge has been to make her body hold a certain fantasy, simultaneously, being very conscious of the current reality.

In 2005, Yoko Ishiguro started to create her own/collaboration pieces in/outside of Japan. Mostly, her works are sight-specific and time-specific and have been performed to look at “co-existence”, “time and distance” and “individual memories and collective memory” by distorting the meanings of the venues and relationships between the performances the audience and bringing some theatrical techniques including her physical existence and some daily items and daily technologies such as the internet and video.

In August 2008, Yoko moved to London and started to study at Queen Mary, University of London. After she finished her course, she is participating in some residency programs and performance events around Europe based in London.

Now she is in Tokyo and looking for ways to “perform” remotely with high/low-tech-communication tools to challenge the distance.

photo by Azumi Kajiwara