Japanese artist Meiro Koizumi (born 1976) has built a compelling body of video and performance work that deals with power dynamics, and Japan's modern history and visual culture. Implicating himself, his performers and the viewer through choreographed emotional manipulations, Koizumi creates work that straddles the uncomfortable and indefinable line between cruelty and comedy, examining questions of political and psychological control.

In this rare Houston appearance, Koizumi discusses some of his major works, including Human Opera XXX (2007), My Voice Would Reach You (2009), Portrait of a Young Samurai (2009), Defect in Vision (2012) and his most recent performance at Tate Modern, The Birth of Tragedy (2013). Houston is the first stop during Koizumi's Texas visit before he travels to Austin, where he will create a work at the contemporary art space testsite, in collaboration with Yasufumi Nakamori, associate curator of photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.