Japanese Tea and Ritual Room - 卯月Uzuki (April) 
April 19th and 20th

Created by Maho 0gawa

in collaboration with performers Carolyn Hall and Annie MingHao Wang

Sound by Tomoko Hojo

Japanese Tea and Ritual Room—卯月Uzuki (April)  is a research-based interdisciplinary work expanding perspectives on Japanese Tea Culture, seeking new meanings in ritual, and finding common ground between Japanese traditional culture and contemporary New York life.

Japanese Tea and Ritual Room consists of interactive installations inspired by personal rituals, as described by survey participants. Live performance activations of the installations realize the cultural intersections of the concept of "nothingness" that Japanese Tea Ritual invokes. During each performance activation performers will  evoke a zen garden as human statues, stretching our sense of time so that we may find presence and stillness.

Dates and Times: 

Friday, April 19th 

Installation open: 3pm - 8pm

Activations at 4pm, 6:30pm, and 8pm

Saturday, April 20th

Installation Open: 3pm - 7pm

Activations 4pm and 6pm

*Purchase a ticket to any activation and come experience the interactive installation before or after the performance.

Performances are being presented in tandem with the release of Maho's article in Push/Pull (published by Culture Push in March 2024).
Interrogating her roots as a Japanese choreographer, Maho began researching the Japanese tea ritual for its formality, concept, and the social function as a community gathering. In 2023, she conducted a survey about personal rituals of the local community in New York. Results and reflections from the survey, along with an overview of Japanese Tea Culture, and an interview with a Japanese Tea Master, Yoshitsugu Nagano, are presented in the article.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS 

Maho Ogawa (水素co.) is a Japanese born multidisciplinary movement artist working in NY. She uses body, video, text, installation, and audience-participatory methods to discover how relationships and the environment affect individual bodies consciously and subconsciously. Her works have been presented in NY/NJ at Princeton University, Invisible Dog Art Center, Emily Harvey Foundation, Movement Research at the Judson Church as well as in Korea and Japan at Za Koenji and Whenever Wherever Festival to name a few. She's currently working on public events inspired by Japanese tea rituals to build new methods of thinking about “silence,” providing a quiet but active mindset to heal and unite the community. She is a 2023 Associated Artist at the Culture Push.  www.suisoco.com

Carolyn Hall is a Bessie award winning freelance dancer/performer, historical marine ecologist, and scientific communication coach. She can often be found along shorelines hatching plans for creative public engagement projects around fish, water, and climate change. Some current engagements: the speculative future climate change project 'Sunk Shore' with Clarinda Mac Low, Maho Ogawa’s Japanese Tea Ceremony series of performance investigations, and Carrie Ahern’s intimate performances examining female sexuality and society. Other hats: co-directs science communication programs for the American Fisheries Society, co-founder of Exact Communication, and Creative Programs Coordinator for Genspace. carolynjhall.com

Annie MingHao Wang is a freelancer based in New York. She is a 2024 LMCC Manhattan Arts Grantee, a 2022-2024 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence, and a 2024 Marble House Project Artist-in-Residence. She has also been in residence at Leimay Foundation, BRIC, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Her work has been presented by Pioneers Go East at Out-FRONT!, Movement Research @Judson, Leimay OUTSIGHT, Five Myles, the Center for Performance Research, the Exponential Festival, and BRIC. Annie is an active company member of Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group and also dances with Sugar Vendil, 水素co. (suisoco.), and Same As Sister.

Tomoko Hojo is an artist working within the fluidity between sound, music and performance. Recently Hojo works on the theme that makes (women’s) silenced voices audible in the history, with a special focus on Japanese women who have relations to western countries, such as Yoko Ono. Her works has been exhibited and performed at Tate Modern (London), Issue Project Room (NYC),  ZKM (Karlstuhe), Emily Harvey Foundation (NYC), Contemporary Art Center Aomori (Japan),  SA))_gallery (Moscow), Scandinavia House (NYC),  Kunstquartier Bethanien (Berlin), TOKAS Hongo (Tokyo).  She has published ‘Unfinished Descriptions’, a documentation of a show based on the research about Yoko Ono through yoin press.

DEVELOPMENT: 

The first iteration of this work, The Japanese Gesture Archive - Tea Ceremony, was commissioned by Invisible Dog Art Center (October 2022.) Since then, the work has been developed through Emily Harvey Foundation (2022), Culture Push's Show and Don't Tell symposium (June 2023) + online magazine PUSH/PULL (March 2024), Target Margin Residency (Nov 2023), Movement Research at the Judson Church (December 11, 2023).

Japanese Tea and Ritual Room—卯月Uzuki (April) on April 19 and 20, 2024 at JACK has been awarded a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant and was developed through Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Rehearsal week program (March 25-31,2024) lmcc.net.

Location
20 Putnam Avenue in Brooklyn, C or G train to Clinton-Washington. Accessible station at Franklin Avenue C/Shuttle train. Click here for more information about what to expect when you come to JACK.