Updating the changes of my idea
((((08/05/2018 I asked Chung to be PO and I’m planing to spend a day with Chung to give my essence of becoming of PO. I’ll show how I live and what I think and also for Chung’s transform, I also need to know herself as well so I’ll ask her 14 questions. She will wear the costumes of PO and she will act like eating popcorns and drinking beer. Hopefully we will be a shadow and an entity of Haruka.
I got the idea of doing performance with a person wearing my costume is from a film ‘Perfect blue’ which is about a pop idol star lost her identity by facing many occasions. Becoming an idol is kind of reacting to the public image of oneself. So the protagonist became like eaten by the character of her pop idol star. The last scene of the pop star idol of herself chasing the real herself was scary. Her pop star identity holding an umbrella tried to kill her real herself.
I somehow feel like PO is like the pop star idol’s identity. It always tries to drag me back to the optimistic part of me.
This would connect to a Japanese myth of the god of the Sun. She used to be very optimistic and cheerful but when there was something horrible happened related her brother, she decided to stay in a cave for long time, during the time there was no Sun, so people got troubled. And people started to dance and sing in front of the cave. In the end, people showed a mirror and the god found her beauty again and she decided to go outside and the world got the Sun back.
I’m thinking of staying in a black bed sheet, and trying to stay in side as long as I can. Po and Sum started to try waking me up. Dancing, singing, drinking and eating around me. And I try to escape from them. And I’ll do counting rice in the edge of a room like praying a chant. Get water and pour to a cup to divide to two. And drink with Chung. Gradually I start dancing and singing together. And Chung becomes calm, and we count rice together. Let audience to eat popcorns and also counting rice. The atmosphere would be chaotic in-between calmness and cheerfulness. ))))
09/05/2018 Today after talking with Unn and Emma, and also the change of the setting up in our space, I found the shadow HARUKA is now welcomed because the objects in the space suddenly start interacting each other. I found every object has their souls which can represent ‘SHADOW’ of them. So I started to think of standing outside of the window and looking at the audience in the space wearing a black bed sheet and also the black sunglasses. The black sunglasses would connect to the video on the duvet. (In the end of the video, there is a scene of looking into the black sunglasses). I started to think of using rice to make sounds on the window, because there is a sound of rice in the sound I made. And when audience find me, I immediately escape to the garden or, hiding under the window, or counting rice to focus on my solidarity.
PO and ZUM will be interacting with objects and also move the audience as objects in the space. They will eat popcorns and drink beers to be focusing on the moment but more like escapism way. They will be distracted by many elements in the space.
There is one more idea of performing as a shadow. I can become a space in-between objects itself. And that could be an entropy power in-between objects or anything.
When I wear sunglasses, my eye sight will be very bad. And also audience can’t judge my emotion as well. It can create the situation of focusing blurry.
10/05/2018
The final idea for the show. “Imperfect gravity”. Unn’s word. It sounds perfect for our world. Our work or works are floating in the universe. Sometimes they touch the ground of planets and they don’t stay at one planet and fly to another planets. We don’t stay on one planet for long. We jump to another to another.
Today we tested a performance in the space. Chung wearing PO’s costume, Emma wearing Zum’s costume, Unn wearing a monkey looked mask, I wearing a black bed sheet with a circle on top. We interacted with objects, paintings, TVs, a light bulb and a projector. In the beginning, everyone hesitated to move but gradually the atmosphere became softer and softer. The sounds and objects helped them to be more childish I felt.And also we had a pizza party. We started to use pizza, popcorns or beer bottles to perform naturally under the projection on a duvet. We used a light bulb and a projector to make shadows to create some stories.
It was quite weird to see Chung in my costume. She looks like me but not me. When Unn and I showed a photograph to our friend, she misunderstood that we showed our photograph, Chung and Emma in our costumes. I also got confused by the appearance and also some behaviors linked to ourselves, and I thought that Emma in Zum’s costume was Unn and also Chung in Po’s costume was myself. Detaching myself from PO was quite interesting experience. It reminded me of ‘Truman show’ about a guy who has been watched by everyone as a TV program. I was feeling like watching Chung and Emma in our costumes in a cinema as an audience with putting my soul in it. It was like daydreaming. ‘Oh that’s PO! Yes she is PO! I’m PO! Hello PO!’, ‘Hm? something is wrong.. ? Ah it’s different…?’ And awake from a dream and daydreaming again.
Emma started to use her sock or my shoes to create sounds and Chung destroyed a part of duvet to create a new way of wearing sunglasses. The playfulness was linked to what Unn and I used to do. I found them so similar to us and I felt like they are illusions like figures in a screen. I remembered Miku Hatsune, she is a virtual pop star idol. You can’t touch her but what you see and admire is real in your mind. PO was real but the PO I see now is somehow a cosplay but still has some similarity. ‘Who is the real PO then?’ that’s the question.
My shadow performance should be happened secretly. Hide and seek, death, shadow, black, gap, space, loneliness, discipline, there are many ways to translate my role. The main role is a space in-between objects. I started to think of using rice and beans to throw to a window, and collect them again and divide and throw again. the gesture off throwing of rice or beans means that getting rid of bad luck or purifying in Japan. It would be like trying to get rid of the daydream in the space but also the sound of rice and beans on the window creates the loneliness, ‘I want to be found, but also I don’t anyone to realize me’. The sounds like raining of tears as well. And also there is a pond, so using the water from the pond looking into myself like narcism and get water to divide them in two. The gesture of dividing in two may express the sign of being in-between objects, people, atmosphere or air. I believe that there must be something happening in-between somethings. That’s why our space can move. The separation of HARUKA(shadow) and PO would be like dividing rice and beans or water.
And also how I shouldn’t get attention would be important. PO and ZUM are in a light, but I’m a shadow, so I shouldn’t be in attention more than them. So if I find someone looking at me, I would immediately stop moving or coaching like a stone.
About the works in the space, I realized that we developed our each works in some restrictions, but now they are getting released from definitions. For example, Unn’s paintings are considered very well with colors, especially a big blue painting from a selection of three paintings, she was considering about the slight changes of colors everyday. I also considered about length of cuts of my videos, numbers of crochets, the meaning of small sumo dolls and so on. The space seems to try to untie every works from the meanings, colors and definitions. The gap between objects made them more relaxed because they are not in order anymore now. I really want to be the symbol of the gap by becoming a shadow.
Many people told us that the atmosphere is really homy because of the traces of human behaviors on our objects artworks. ‘Art exhibition’ sounded for me like focusing on one thing in front of a viewer in nervousness, but the space we create is more for relaxing and also distracting attentions to make focal points blur. The opposite concept from the original ‘ART’ show our daydreaming or ideal of ‘Being outside but inside of ART’.