November 16th, 2014

Beyond the Eyes

This work explores gender, the heirarchy of clothes, and the naked, natural body before it is clothed in the hegemony of social-political norms. It is intended to purposefully interrupt this norm by a free and public performance in a “guerilla – style” fashion scheduled for December 2, Tuesday, 9:30 am, in front of the Hamilton Library.

The hope of the performance is to allow a dialogue to occur, critically ask ourselves who am I? What do I take part in society? Why do I dress, talk, work, feel like I do? What does it mean to be a woman? A man? A mahu? A bisexual? This project wants to see beyond what the eyes see.

“Our seeing is already deeply predetermined. Much of the knowledge we gain through vision and our other senses, and the way we direct our seeing, is highly organized. To a large extent this is not a matter of choice but of our cultural and even our neural conditioning. We see conceptually, metaphorically, linguistically. But whatever our culture, we also see to some extent literally. There is always a tension between these two ways of seeing, and between our consciousness of meaning and being…Meaning shapes perception, but in the end perception can refigure meaning, so that at the next stage this may alter perception once again…”

– taken from Meaning and Being by David MacDougal

clothesrack

Yesterday was our first rehearsal. Sami couldn’t come at the last minute. Terry had to leave early, and Megan was late. Lucy was there the whole time. I first talked with all of them about why I wanted to do this piece. I wanted to actually do a piece directly related to the human body and the politics and perceptions about gender/sex and ultimately about the naked, natural body. We also talked about how place, history, and of course religion and politics have shaped the way we look at tall this. I also shared with them about the risks of performing nude at my proposed site: the Lawn in front of Hamilton Library. I am encouraging nudity in this piece and not forcing anyone of them to do anything they didn’t want to do ( including wearing or not wearing a certain piece of clothing or clothes at all). Kara said she would be arrested with us, so that made us all feel better….

I have to go for now but check out these clips from rehearsal yesterday, mahalo, wai:

Feminine:

Masculine:

Section 1 Chair Choreo:

Section 2 Chair Choreo:

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