A performance exploring memories of the island and residency in conversation with participants of Art Islands TOKYO 2015 (& 2020) utilising dance, still image and digital drawing and zoom technologies.

In 2015, I travelled to Izu Ōshima to participate in Art Islands TOKYO. I struggled through the residency, falling sick on the first night, battling insomnia and the experiences of being seen/unseen and private/public aspects. Outcomes included: Feels Cinema, a performance installation for one person (made with cardboard boxes from local supermarkets, and a strong desire for privacy); Hige Dansu (dance of the moustache), a participatory performance event; and, Rot, a series of performance installation experiments with sitting and lying inside cardboard boxes in outdoor spaces.

These works also emerged in response to being queer and gender non-conforming within the socio-cultural environment, and the sensations and impressions of dancing in relation to place. Dancing with Izu Ōshima, I found comfort in engaging with its dramatic geological features, atmospheres, weather, humidity and tendencies to mould, to rot. In particular I was drawn to the materiality of the volcano Mihara-yama, and its stories, including that of being a popular destination for suicide in the 1920s.

For Art Islands TOKYO 2020 I revisit memories and stories of Izu Ōshima and the residency in conversation with participants. The work Rot 2 will emerge out of a collaborative process of re-membering and capturing memories and conversations, solo experiments in my back yard in Kirikiriroa, in Aotearoa New Zealand, and a suturing of the resulting video, audio, still image and digital drawing materials into an online performance.