News

Performance Art

IF WE WERE XYZ

by

MELATI SURYODARMO

with Jessika Keeney and Anthonius Oki Wiriadjaja
Thu 17 Oct 2019

3 – 6 p.m.

Fri 18 Oct 2019

5 – 8 p.m.

Asia Society
725 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10021

 

ARTIST TALK

BODY AS CONTAINER
Tue 15 Oct 2019

6:30 – 8 p.m.

Asia Society
725 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10021.

One of Asia’s most important contemporary artists, Melati Suryodarmo, has been creating powerful, immersive performance work for nearly twenty-five years. She premieres a durational performance, entitled IF WE WERE XYZ at Asia Society Museum. In this new work, she explores dreams—both in the sense of the subconscious experiences we have while sleeping and the conscious aspirations we have when awake. Drawing upon Javanese mysticism, the artist’s own dreams documented in a self-devised sleep laboratory, and other sources, Suryodarmo’s intensive research process leads to a visceral three-hour performance. IF WE WERE XYZ will feature a live journeying through a powerful dreamscape; Suryodarmo collaborated with technologist Antonius Oki Wiriadjaja to decipher dreams collected in her sleep laboratory which inspired the compositions vocalist/composer Jessika Kenney has created for the piece.

Entry with museum admission and permitted at any point during the three-hour performance. Space limited.

This performance also occurs on Friday, October 18 from 5–8 p.m.

On Tuesday, October 15, Suryodarmo discusses her artistic practice, developed over 25 years and influenced by Javanese meditation, Japanese butoh, and study of performance art with Marina Abramović, in the artist talk Body As Container.

Concept and performance: Melati Suryodarmo
Music: Jessika Kenney
Technologist and interactive systems design: Antonius Oki Wiriadjaja

Suryodarmo’s performances are part of Asia Society’s Creative Common Ground, an initiative focused on the commissioning of interdisciplinary works that bring together artists and talents from different disciplines. Creative Common Ground is supported in part by a three-year grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

 

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