It's already the end of April and I feel like half of the year has already gone by. What is this saying about me and the way I work or the way we are accustomed now to fill and take up time. It - time - seems to be the common theme in the year of the dog and I know I'm not alone.
Time has been a very important concept to the jar and skew the series of letters, messages and stories that were found, spun, built, lost and spoken in Rock, Paper, Scissors. Told by our trusted narrator K as she traverses through various chapters of time spanning the 1900-2100 - it parallels a story of trying to remember the island of Kayashima and its surrounding brackish water - an area of water that once was a site for children to play in and families to go to, housing species of sea animals and fish that are no longer. Time was snipped open by the 30' giant in a tatara steele factory, K gets tossed down a dusty pathway on the island of Mayne on her way to confront the Mr. N the man with the pocket watch - as she carries on so does the rest of the world that holds space to hear the story.
Our most recent travel to Yonago, Tottori-ken Japan was an ending to the epic Rock, Paper, Scissors which is a 45 minute multi-media installation - but also a 4 year process of making site-specific works with community members, public archives, chance encounters, gut feelings, mistakes with the support of the team AIR 475 and curator Makiko Hara. When people ask how it was, it's almost difficult to describe it all or even name all the outcomes, events, the affect of the artwork and its process. I feel particularly lucky to see other things invisible come together from the presence of both two visitors - Makiko and I - coming to gather, meet and play on this special place for the past 4 years. But, I'm pleased to say all these complex thoughts and conversations will be documented into a special book project that will be scheduled to come out this winter 2018. Stay tuned.