Honehitotsu

August 5 & 6, 2023

Title: Honehitotsu (one/a bone) 
Performance of voice, body and mask 
In collaboration with Keiko Miyamori 
Voice, body, composition and performance by Aine Nakamura 
Mask created by Keiko Miyamori 
Production by mh PROJECT ノコギリ二, mh PROJECT nyc  
Presented at mh PROJECT ノコギリ二, Ichinomiya 
Duration: 30:00 each 

The two performances were presented for and parts of the exhibition Me, The Timeless Self – within the Umwelt by Keiko Miyamori produced by mhPROJECT in collaboration with Miyamori. Unwelt was the theme of the exhibition and performances, meaning species having different perceptions of the environment. Miyamori takes rubbed copied of trees at Iwato Shrine in Ichinomiya on washi paper, and exhibits them together with a boat with flower petals in, and an acorn. With this theme, and with the request by Miyamori for a performance that would allow for audience to feel energy-body, I aimed to connect what may be in between surfaces of skins of paper, skins of trees, memories of rubbing, humans, life, death, unknown, and things, including the embodied weaving tools at the site, which was an old weaving factory, now an art space. By wearing masks which would hide my face, a significant part of my personal identity, I let the abstract, space and time, and masks, instead of flesh and identified body, be the performing energy. I focused on depth of self, which connects with oneness, instead of surface of ego, which is separated, as Toshihiko Izutsu writes about, (and therefore instead of my personal experiences and feelings), flow of energy and long time that would connect with an acorn and a cicada's skin, and the unidentified performing energy. In the architecture of the factory, I moved across structural borders from an empty space/stage, installation site, in between audience, old door frames, weaving loom space, to an outdoor realm.