Nectar Performance at Tenderloin National Forest Opening

Yesterday my family and I attended a portion of the all day celebrations at the Grand Opening of The Tenderloin National Forest. We enjoyed the hot bread made on the spot in the clay oven, the interesting video installations, vibrant murals and art all around. At the entrance Michael Swaine was stationed with his mobile sewing cart and he was sewing Tenderloin National Forest patches onto garments people brought. Every 15th of the month he is here with his mobile sewing machine.






















































































We especially enjoyed the butoh performance by dancer Christina Braun and musician Jeffery Scott Perry.























Christina Braun before her performance. I loved the green eye make up and her expression. She is wearing my small Sky Viewing Hat made of Asian food wrappers and Japanese ear cleaners.
Above photo taken by Shizue Seigel, an AAWAA artist friend of mine who is a photographer, writer and painter.
http://shizueseigel.com/Index.htm























Above: Christina begins her performance with fabric dramatically wrapped around her.























Above: Christina on the lawn area.























Above: I almost forgot to get out of the way here. Shizue documented this moment. I was so entranced that I only realized when her face was super close, that, "Oh, I got to move out of the way!" The picture below is the one I took right before I moved. She must have been thinking that she was going to have to hop over me!
























It was fun to see how the music and dance interacted in this improv piece. It was improv in the sense that they had not rehearsed it together at all, but had collaborated via email sending concept ideas and music files.

Below: Mr. Perry on his electric guitar.











































Mr. Perry's music was lovely with Christina's movements and the alley park vibrated and pulsated with the piece. Below: Curious residents peek out their window to listen and watch the performance.

















Above photo taken by Jennifer de Graaf, a landscape architect friend.
Below photo by Shizue Seigel














































Above: I got a chance to talk with Jeff Brown, one of the landscape architects responsible for the beautiful park. I only got to hear a little bit about the history of the site and its development. I know there is a wonderful long story behind it all. I also got a chance to talk with Rigo, the mosaic/painter artist responsible mosaic pathway. I heard him speak years ago at Fort Mason and it was really nice to just tell him how much I enjoy his work. Many of his murals grace San Francisco and are iconic landmarks.

Below: Christina and Scott after their performance.























More pictures of the event at my Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/corinne_o/sets/72157617888260009/

Christina has named our collaborative work Nectar. Nectar's next project is at the Sub Zero Festival in San Jose on June 5th. One performance will be at 9pm and one at 10pm in front of The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. We'll be right next to the "Absolve Your Sins" dunk tank. Really. I am looking forward to seeing what that looks like. It is all an adventure and I am glad that quite a few friends and familiar faces were at The Tenderloin Opening.

More on Tenderloin National Forest Butoh Performance

Here is more on the interesting process behind the Butoh piece for the Tenderloin National Forest Grand Opening.

This is Christina Braun's brief outline of her collaboration with composer Jeffrey Scott Perry
for their improve piece that will be performed at 5:45pm on Saturday:
Butoh dance score by Christina Braun inspired by Mayan hummingbird legend and Emily Dickinson for new site specific performnce: Nectar 1, May 9, 2009, San Francisco Tenderloin National Forest Opening Event:
Jeffrey Scott Perry's music begins.
I become the poem/myth/music.
I accept the transformation.
Flutter-by into the waving soundscape.
Sit at the music maker's feet.
Listening with smal secret gestures.
Flower petals fall.
Spiders weave.
The sun groom glows and dazzles,
the red bride answers with an exquisite vibration.
United, we return, erase.






















Christina at location of site specific performance.

I am providing an Asian food wrapper flower hat for costuming.

Christina Braun Butoh Costume Test at Tenderloin National Forest

Today I met with the butoh dancer Christina Braun at The Tenderloin National Forest to test out some of my hats on site to see what would work for her performance. She will be dancing for the grand opening of Tenderloin Natioinal Forest on May 9th. Her butoh improve piece will be in collaboration with the musician/composer Jeffrey Scott Perry who will play electric guitar. Christian has named our group collaboration Nectar.
Here is info on the space and grand opening:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/13/DDOM16LICU.DTL
























I really enjoyed photographing her against the vibrantly colorful murals. It was also interesting to see how she changed her moods with each different hat. I know that when she has her white make-up on it will be a very dramatic pairing of costuming with movements. She may be wearing a different garment but I am glad I got a chance to photograph her in this old kimono from my grandma. I think it is from the 1950's and I like that it has some patchwork on it. It has a rich hidden past life. I also thought the kimono pattern and color went well with Rigo's blue and white tile pathway.
























I was curious about the process of creating a butoh improve piece with music. Christina told me that she will give Mr. Perry a sort of outline of moods and gestures for every few seconds of her movements, like " 2-5 seconds-watches flower petals fall" With this outline, I think Mr. Perry will roughly compose a piece and email it to her and then she will practice a few time to that. I don't think they will be rehearsing together at all and will create the piece live on site for the festival. Such an interesting way to collaborate! The music will respond to Christina's rough outline of movements and moods and center on a theme about a humming bird using feedback, digital effects, and downright virtuosic performance technique on electric guitar.
Here is Mr. Perry's website: http://www.jspguitarsoundstudio.com/index.html
























My children loved this image below and can't wait for the performance. They both have been practicing this expression in the mirror all evening and entertained themselves to no end.































































Christina found a dead potted plant in the corner of the benches and created this poignant gesture below. I have posted more images on my Flickr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/corinne_o/sets/72157617282165404/















































I look forward to working with Christina on this project and on The SubZero water dance piece in June (see earlier postings). Here is her bio:

Choreographer Christina Braun's collaborations with composers have been presented regularly since 2002, including the Thailand International Butoh Festival "New Generations" 2006, and the West Wave Dance Festival "World Forms" 2007. Christina has danced with Katsura Kan since 2004, Koichi and Hiroko Tamano's Harupin-Ha since 1998, and Mary Sano and her Duncan Dancers since 1997. Christina choreographed the 2007 Woman's Will theatrical production of Mac Wellman's Antigone.

Christina’s project SF Butoh LAB's mission is to promote peace through art exchange by producing new dance performances, symposia and workshops. In 2008, Christina co-created BUTOH San Francisco, whose purpose is to foster the growth of the Bay Area Butoh artist and audience communities. Christina curates an ongoing Saturday movement class, the Berkeley Butoh Experience. As a facilitator to creativity and performance training, Christina gratefully utilizes the teachings of Butoh masters Akiko Motofuji, Yumiko Yoshioka, Akira Kasai, and Yoshito and Kazuo Ohno.

Artist Statement

I have a new shortened artist statement. I had the help of various friends and family to get it down to a coherent statement. Thanks to Ashraf Zahedi, my dad and to Scott Perry for their patience in viewing numerous drafts and for lending their writing skills to my edits.

My works are sculptural compilations that mix the precious with the mundane to reveal the beauty and value in the seemingly valueless. The pieces playfully pay homage to my immigrant Japanese Hawaiian ancestors’ humble lives on sugar plantations and bring to light the cascade of cultures they experienced through sharing food, clothing, and myths. Life stories and dreams are revived by weaving their disposable cultural artifacts into sculptural narratives that celebrate their tradition of recycling and reuse. Through my sculptures, I give visual form to their experiences, uncover their memories, and pay respect to their creativity that was born from necessity.

December de Young Museum Residency!

Last week I learned that I was selected to be the Artist in Residence at the de Young Museum for the month of December 2008. I am very excited and a bit anxious. There is a lot to do to get ready! My residency's tentative title is "Rhythms and Space" and will feature my mixed media tapestries created from recycled materials from the grounds of the de Young Museum as well as from my collection of wrappers. The visitor participatory activity will engage the visitor in creating wire and paper tapestry tiles to add to a visitor created tapestry. Below are studies for some of the tapestries of wire, fabric, wrappers and paper.

My reception will be December 13th from 3-5 pm.
It will feature live music as well as original scores by Scott Perry http://jspguitarsoundstudio.com/index.html
and a fashion show with Colleen Quen http://www.colleenquencouture.com/
The fashion show will highlight the hat elements that come off of the tapestries. My son will also be performing a few pieces on his guitar. Details to come!
See samples of my hats at:
http://www.okadadesign.com/hats.html
and at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/corinne_o/sets/72157605547855980/

(If you are a visual artist and are interested in applying to this residency, click on the title of this blog entry and it will take you to their residency information page.)

Study of tapestry 1



















Inspirations for tapestry 1 (English silk textile from de Young collection)














Study of Tapestry 2




















Inspirations for tapestry 2 (Japanese textile from de Young collection, chairs of cafe, flowers on grounds and round sky viewing structure)

Study of Tapestry 3


























Inspirations for tapestry 3 (Japanese textile from de Young collection, de Young Museum lights and Ginko leave of grounds)










Below is my original proposal submitted to the residency in 2006:

The project I propose to make is a large airy three dimensional mixed media tapestry sculpture made of found objects from Golden Gate Park. Squares made of twisted enameled wire are covered in fragmented paper skins and sheer silks. The papers are pressed of recycled materials found in the park (i.e.: ticket stubs, newspapers and food wrappers) as well as from mulberry pulp and shredded maps and postcards of Golden Gate Park. Colorful wax impressions of found objects from the park are then suspended inside these tiles. Each square incorporates debris found in a particular region of Golden Gate Park. This way, each tile is a sort of snapshot in discards of a certain section. A conceptual sketch of this tapestry is attached. Abstract floral elements, interpretations of flowers and plants from the park, will overlay the geometric grid of the tapestry. Dark background shapes will echo the contours of paths in the park.

The process of making such a tapestry involves the creation of the individual wire squares using electrician wire twisters, needle nose pliers and enameled wire. Each square is formed against a cardboard template. It is removed from the template and then wire is added to give it dimension and pattern. Hand made paper pulled from fragments of maps and wrappers are glued and stitched to each square. Some squares are then filled with produce netting or stitched over with sheer silks. Found objects or their wax impressions are suspended inside some squares by fishing line. The squares attach to each other with wire hooks and the resulting mixed media tapestry suspends from the ceiling from a bamboo pole.

The interactive project I propose to accompany my residency project invites the visitor to create a three dimensional tapestry square of floral wire, paper, produce netting and other recycled materials. This square is then linked with those made by other visitors forming an ongoing work on progress. These tiles would be similar in construction to the more complex tapestry tiles that build my tapestry sculptures. Several templates for the design will be provided for the viewer to follow. The project illustrates to the viewer how a modular element can be incorporated into a more complex pattern. It also invites the viewer to look at the detritus of everyday life a little closer, find the beauty in the texture and form and reflect on what our trash says about us.