MONKEY 2018
In 2018, I was selected for an artistic research residency in the Tokyo region of Japan. My research project involved an anthropological observation of contemporary Japanese culture and its relationship to ritual in order to compose a performative work.
Monkey is a walking performance around the Meiji-jingū temple, concluding along the southern axis of the temple. It serves as an analogy for the condition of a society whose support can break at any moment and where all structures rely on devices that allow them to maintain balance. In Japanese society, at both the environmental and individual levels, one carries and endures with resignation the trials that geographical, cultural, and economic constraints prevent from being remedied. In such a context, agility and flexibility, whether physical or mental, become paramount over brute strength and obstruction.
