Wesleyan University: October 6, 2017
Sam came to the College of the Environment at Wesleyan where I had an office for a year as a Think Tank Fellow. I was working on a Met commissioned work, A Body in Places: Met Edition to be co-presented by Performa 17. The performances were at each of the three Met buildings on three Sundays in November 2017. I had edited a seven and a half hour video from my visits to Fukushima. I only conceived this durational performance because it would allow me to bring Fukushima into the Met. I had set up a projector with the Fukushima video at a small conference room and rehearsed as Sam watched alone.
“So?”
“You spoke about wanting to stain the Met walls with Fukushima images. You want to do that more clearly instead of moving a projector or interacting with it however interesting that is.”
That conversation made me think toward staining the Met walls not only by scenes of Fukushima but also by my performer’s body. I am a stain.
The Metropolitan Museum: November 19, 2017
I performed all day at each of the three Met locations. Sam could only come to the last performance at the Met Fifth Ave. He came with Anne. That evening, I received a text from him:
Eiko @ Met
Arriving at 10:32
One wall seems contemplative
Strengthens the poetics, the language
"Further north, inland "
Change of light from skylight very affective
though it dilutes the projections
But creates a ghostly glow
As the clouds move across the sun on cue
Emphasizes the entropy of forgetting
Sound score works well
Long flat feet hit the cold hard floor
The art of intrusion
Effective transitions
The beach wall section!! (@11:30)
Great fade @11:36 to "broken town"
6 emblematic minutes
"flowers are wet with morning dew"
Who is writing this?
Still
Life
"The field remains unattended
but wildflowers grow"
At noon I like the domestic chores
Pouring water from the pitcher to the bowl
Washing the wall
Stained red calligraphy
"Everything humans make breaks
sooner or later"
As in nature.
And then one is left with the sound of the sea
As we leave at 12:57
I can talk to you in one hour.