Donate to "Japanese Tea and Ritual Room - 卯月" in NY

Hello, I am Maho, an interdisciplinary movement artist and choreographer in NYC.

I am asking for your support to fund my multidisciplinary solo performance-exhibition, "Japanese Tea and Ritual Room - 卯月 Uzuki (April)at JACK in Brooklyn, NY on April 19&20 2024.

It’s a research-based work expanding perspectives on Japanese tea culture, seeking new meanings in ritual, and finding common ground between Japanese traditional culture and contemporary New York life.

The exhibition features an open, participatory “ritual room” where the audience is invited to freely wander and explore, and featuring regular intervals of a live performance from myself, Carolyn Hall, Annie MingHao Wang, and Tomoko Hojo (sound).

I’m so grateful to have the chance for another presentation of the Japanese Tea and Ritual Room at JACK, an important hub for experimental art and activism in Brooklyn, NY. Still, it's been very challenging to seek financial resources for the performance production in a short time. To make the most of this opportunity, I need your support to realize this project.

Money raised will cover costs of the solo performance exhibition, including -

・artist fee (4 performers) to recreate the imaginary Zen garden at JACK, sound artist, photographer, videographer

・material fees for installation (printing papers, inks, mats, props)

・Japanese tea and candies + shipping fee from Japan to provide authentic tea ritual experience to the New York audiences

・rehearsal / creation studio rental fee (20 hours of studio rehearsals)

・printing costs for the online magazine PUSH/PULL no.20 (designer fees, printing fees, shipping costs)

・production costs (costumes, exhibition catalog)

・promotion expenses (website, social media)

This fundraiser will remain open through April 30th to support the post production process.

These performances are being presented to celebrate the release of the March 2024 issue of Culture Push’s magazine, for which I was the Guest Editor: Push/Pull "a place where individuals become a whole~ Japanese Tea and Everybody's Rituals".

The issue includes a summary of my research into Japanese tea ritual, my original survey about the personal rituals of my local community in New York, an overview of Japanese Tea Culture, and an interview with a Japanese Tea Master, Yoshitsugu Nagano.

The story behind the project

I moved to NY to develop my artistic career after studying ballet, traditional Japanese dance, and experimenting my performance works in Tokyo. In 2021, I published MMC, Minimum Movement Catalog, an online movement lexicon as a way to research my roots, my Japanese-ness, through body language by archiving movements from the West and East and examining each movement language's kinetic and symbolic meaning.

This exploration has led me to dive deeply into Japanese Tea ceremony and ritual as another way to investigate my roots and my relocation.

My practice of this Japanese Tea Ritual series has been supported by Invisible Dog Art Center (the video below), Emily Harvey Foundation, Culture Push's Show and Don't Tell, and Movement Research at the Judson Church (the video below.) And I'm excited to be presented at JACK.

I came to New York to be a part of this most exciting contemporary art scene, and your support will be an enormous help to me as a striving Japanese artist in New York.

My mission is to create movement artworks connected to embodied Asian gesture, in the multicultural context of New York. I will be so grateful to make the future with you.

Love,

Maho

www.suisoco.com

I.G.@suisomaho