kaon na > installation > NECKFACE, performance installation, 2002-04.


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___Environment Description
___Performance Description(see below)
___Essay (PDF, 28 pgs)
___Performance Script (PDF, 5 pgs)
___Research Outline (PDF, 3 pgs)
___FurtherReading (PDF, 9 pgs)
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Performance Description


The performance has antecedents in the Catholic mass, which is one precedent for a space being used as both a gallery (for mediation centered on the observation of objects) and a theater (for ceremonial performance). Handfasting, constant craft-labor, opposing the colors reddish-brown and white--these are other ritualistic actions and preparations, commonly found in initiatory and commitment ritual, that inform the performance.

Two actors enact a stylized initiatory/courtship movement ritual. Initiatory movement primarily consists of mechanistic, obsessive clay-sculpting in an attempt to bring a immaterial, ÒvirtualÓ conception--the 3D larval-poultry model--to life. One actor (N) represents a highly introspective, private, even Narcissistic approach to the clay-sculpting. The other actor (E) represents a highly yearning, outward-looking, even Echoic approach.

Courtship movement consists of the janusian Narcissus/Echo pair chasing and retreating from each other. Their energy, first aimed at labor, is redirected towards each other. However, N's misconceived expectation and P's paranoid distrustfulness makes each one awkward, and each remains solitary. After a burst of tempestuous spoken dialogue--a last attempt to connect, an inevitable attempt to escape--they separate and ultimately betray each other.