With the Dead
On May 6 and 7, 2023, Eiko performed her new place-inspired work, With the Dead, in Green-Wood’s Historic Chapel, with her installation Mother. In it, through video and sculpture, Eiko conversed with her late mother and considered what the dead might want from the living. Through performing, she had long wondered whether she could practice and learn about her own dying. She started her performance in the Historic Chapel moving slowly and quietly, then led the viewers outdoors and left them among the graves.
“We all came from a mother, even if some people never met their mothers. From their own birth, mothers contain all the eggs that they will ever have in life. We have been formed from unmeasurable time. Remembering or imagining a mother’s life and body is also to reflect on our own life and body, and beyond.” — Eiko Otake
Photos by Julie Lemberger