Sakasama
Artist Statement
The original inspiration of this work came from the ancient Japanese belief in Sakasama: the reverse world. The two worlds of Life and Death are described as two shores; one is ‘the near shore’ (the world of the living), and the other is ‘the far shore’ (the world of after-death). A river flows between them.
‘The far shore’ is a reversed world: it is the reverse of the world of the living and everything is upside down. I explore the juxtaposition of my presence in Australia, experimenting with the neutrality of emotion and colour, and to manipulate rhythms.
I am in the maze.
I am wandering around the space between,
crossing the shores between here and there.
The world here looks normal and the world here looks abnormal.
The world there looks abnormal and the world there looks normal.
I am surrounded by these unknown voids.
The void creates some fluid and transparent shapes.
I dive into them and they disappear.
Dual, triple, multiple existences of my body floats here and there.
I keep wandering this unknown space between.
Credits
Media Art by Bambang Nurcahyadi
Original Video and Sound edited by Bambang Nurcahyadi and Ian Corcoran
Original Videography by Richard Back, Anthony Pelchen and Yumi Umiumare
Reviews
(The work is） bringing out a strong and weirdly accessible work, in which caricature is often an entrance door for a psychic depth of despair, loneliness, social world and nocturne world -constantly reminding us that obscurity pervades the trivial beauty of daily life-.
Idanca.net online review, by Sheila Ribeiro 2010
PERFORMance history
2009Sakasama(multimedia performance) in Pulse, @ Rooftop in Melbourne
2009Sakasama-reversed world(solo dance short work), I-DANCE Festival Hong Ko
2007Sakasama(collaboration with Bambang Nurcahyadi) Exhibited in OzAsia Festival at Arts Space in Adelaide Festival Centre
Digital image by Bambang N Karim
