September 2020
Tired of Online Content?
Me too.
But, here's some more!
May 2020
I've wanted to work on this piece since I read the Tsurezuregusa of Kenko, also known as Essays in Idleness in college in 2001. These free writings by a monk in the 1330s have always felt important to me as a description of an evolving Japan from the perspective of an individual who clings to older ways of being, who has the privilege to describe the world around them while others have to work to survive. Written in the years leading up to the Muromachi period--a 250 year span where most of the artistic and aesthetic notions we now think of as "Japanese" are developed, nationalized, and adopted by the mainstream --this book becomes an indispensable reference for the evolution of Japanese aesthetics, and is required reading in most Japanese high schools.
“ESSAYS IN IDLENESS” IS A REIMAGINING OF THE ‘TSUREZUREGUSA’, A CLASSIC 14TH-CENTURY TEXT BY ZEN MONK AND POET YOSHIDA KENKO WHO WROTE 243 SHORT ENTRIES ON THE AESTHETIC BEAUTY OF NATURE, SOCIAL RULES, ZEN BUDDHISM, AND THE CONCEPT OF IMPERMANENCE. Never intending for his writing to be published, it was compiled posthumously into what became a classic of Japanese literature. In this adaptation, I examine 88 objects from my home and the desktop of my computer, folding Kenko’s world into my own.
See the piece and all the others in the series on the Onassis website, curated this week by Brian Rogers of The Chocolate Factory. Enter
But That's Not All! I'm making it a long-form audio experience for those of you who don't want to look at any more screens. Check out Category:Other for the Audio Series which will have many more episodes, and is presented by Ben Williams!
January 2020
Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble: The Art of Luv [Part 1]: Elliot at PICA / TBA
Read an exceptionally smart and awesome review in Portland Mercury
From the archive: A collection of radio personalities re-performing an excerpt I clipped from the Colin McEnroe Show for Big Dance Theater's "Man in A Case" adapted from Anton Chekhov. Presented by Hartford Stage Company 2013, toured for infinity years.
Big Dance Theater: This Page Left Intentionally Blank at MASS MoCA and Menil Museum, Houston