Description of Project: The Gray Hand of the Seventh Sky is a theatre/installation piece that discusses the intersectional relationships between Japanese-American experiences and storytelling. The production of the project employs the collection of ghost and oni (monster) stories and contextualizes them within the socio-political landscape of Japanese-American history and identity. The final piece combines aspects of storytelling, video installation and performance.
Theoretical Discussion of Project: Issues of representation have been a major emphasis in my work as an artist. In Gray Hand of the Seventh Sky I wanted to create a piece that spoke to some of the contentious issues surrounding Japanese-American identity in a way that also paid homage to the traditions of storytelling, performance and painting. The piece uses multi-media - hshsh as a means to create a symbiosis of environment and levels of interactivity that coincide with a meaningful discussion about insider/outsider politics of identity. In a way I see the work as a means to challenge ways in which Japanese-American culture and history are simultaneously exotified/gendered, commodified and hidden/diminished.
Kaidan (ghost and obake stories) and kowai hanashi (scary stories) have captivated me for most of my life. My discussion of the kaidan is more an inquiry about fears and “ghosts” how they play into identity and what they (can) say about the socio-political experience of Asian Americans and how these stories can be a means of resistance and education.
I will be creating this project in multiple platforms. I would like to create a digital interface/community for the old Japanese game hyakumonogatari kaidankai involves the telling of a hundred ghost stories. Through participation in the project my hope is to inspire the continuation of storytelling within the Japanese community as well create a means to express deep rooted issues and themes such as colonization, race, gender and sexuality.
One possible thought about this project is in seeing Cheang’s mobiopera and the potential of creating a narrative through mobile phone video and pictures – in a way creating an accessible (portable) narrative.
Proposed Spaces for the Project I would definitely love to take this project to the Japanese Cultural Center in Hawaii or one of the University of Hawaii’s galleries. I also think the piece would do well at the Wing-Luke Museum in Seattle and other Asian American Art/Culture Museums around the country.
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