Artistic interests
Identity - Repetition - Context - Transparency - Multiplicity - Expectation
As a movement artist who has relocated to multiple countries and cultures throughout my life, my artistic journey has been hugely influenced by the search for my identity, or rather the potential qualities of such identities. After reaching my mid 20s, I felt very disinterested in identifying myself based on my nationalities (Japanese and Australian). Yet where I come from is still often the first question I’m asked when meeting a stranger.
Experiencing isolation, I began being interested in ideas of multiplicity and complexity, as well as the urge to fully belong to many identities. I then encountered the idea of Polyness, as suggested by philosopher and artist Thomas Talawa Presto in his lectures at P.A.R.T.S. Polyness or Polycentricity means that there are multiple centres valued (or working) equally and without hierarchy. The example given here was a movement task, where the centre of motion is initiated from both the chest and the hip. This way of dividing attention requires caring for different positions with the same amount of energy at the same time. This is a belief system that I try to apply to my day-to-day life (which involves tragic mistakes and failures) as well as within the decision making in my artistic process. When working in the studio, I try to be conscious of my polycentrism, and often find myself rotating and stretching my attention in different directions at once. This has resulted in quite literally using spinning as a meditation practice or embracing the desire to be covered by something else to perform. This cocoon-like security has allowed me to evade consequences that could arise from working many things at once, while still allowing for dense focal points for the audience to contemplate. Sharing intimate details while looking everywhere at once, revealing myself through plastic. Never looking into the spectators eyes, hoping to outdo their expectations, good or bad.
Since moving to Belgium, I’ve had the privilege to let myself be interested in other mediums other than the blackbox context, where I can intentionally play with disappointments, using multi medium tools such as improvisation, projections, and unique light designs. Repetition has become something of an evil obsession, where my body is completely present and dancing remains my primary creative tool where I can play with the audiences non-verbally, and continuously surprise even myself. The moments I cherish most are when I feel that I am playing with the (un)expectations of the audience by being transparent with my decisions on stage. Even when performing underneath another layer, (layers of material, of thoughts, of emotions, etc) I feel aspects of liveness in performance art, where potentially “anything” can happen. This will always remain my main attraction in life, where the unexpected magically keeps happening.