The artist residency was an amazing experience, not only because it was my first international residency but also my first solo show. Throughout my time there, I knew that it would be an interesting experience to collaborate with a Japanese artist on a performance piece, so I asked the gallery curator (Endo Muzuki) if he was familiar with any local video artists, luckily he knew of one (Atsushi Suzuki) who proved to be kind and patient enough to collaborate with me. I spoke very little Japanese and he was equally inequipped in English, therefore the whole process needed some translation, which often seemed more hilarious than frustrating...
Cows of the sea...No chaos of the sea!
The performance took place on Uminonakamichi beach, approximately one hour outside of Fukuoka city. I was amazed and slightly embarrased by the entourage of umbrella holders, translators and coffee providers that came along that day(but to this day will never fully trust the idea of a can of coffee that heats itself up). I even had some staff that stood at the edges of the frame to stop me from moving to far out of the shot. Afterwards we travelled to the home of one of the galleries staff, a two hundred year old house sitting in an ancient village, where inside we sat on tatami mats drinking green tea and eating peaches, and chatted about the stupidity of the Englishman ( or me?)
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