Honehitotsu
August 5 & 6, 2023
Title: Honehitotsu (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, skins of 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.
photography by 花龍
photography by Ayumi Akahori
Cicada
May 7, 2023
Title: Cicada
Audiovisual performance of membrane, projections, movement, spatialized voice
In collaboration with Olivia Ting
Projections, videos, and images by Olivia Ting
Voice, movement, costume, and composition by Aine Nakamura
Sound development by Luke Dzwonczyk
Special thanks to Jeremy Wagner
Premiered at CNMAT
Duration: 40:00
Performer-composer Aine Nakamura and visual artist Olivia Ting have each shared their stories about their respective physical experiences through hearing aids, surgeries and recovery, through memories, bodies, and how these experiences and shapes may become myths and dreams. The stories unfold spatially and audiovisually through projections on membranes, movement performance, and spatialized voice embodied and reimagined in an outdoor performance.
The two collaborate on this poetic exploration of renewal and acceptance of change in the courtyard garden at CNMAT.
Water field recordings and model training conducted by Maar and Gabriel Vigliensoni. Sounds of water and rocks were captured in Cala Llucalcari, Mallorca, in 2022.
photography by Marina Romani, Jeremy Wagner and Olivia Ting
Yami and Iro
March 2, 2023
Title: Yami and Iro
Performance of voice, body, paper, cloth and video projection
Performance, composition, costume, design, and video by Aine E. Nakamura
Premiered at Musiktheaterabend at Berlin University of the Arts
Duration: 23:11
闇 Yami: darkness and to wait for sound.
色 Iro: colors and eros.
Poet Delmira Agustini (1886-1914) was killed by her ex-husband, with whom she wished a lover relationship instead of marriage. Her poetry focused on sexuality and eros at a time in which men writers were dominant.
This work is a development of my work Kusottare! in which I focused on ownership of body. After the work, I found myself embracing myself more and wrote a new poem. In Yami and Iro, I combine my two poems, one that holds aching and resistance, and the other kindness and embracing. I perform these waves with calligraphy of my poems.
作品中日本語で述べた詩（二つの散文からの抜粋）
Video by Anna Petzer
Festival organization by Jakob Böttcher
Light and sound by Robert Priebs
Special thanks to Daniel Ott, and Kirsten Reese