Title: “One Encounter, one chance” / Ichi-go ichi-e / 一期一会.”

OCT 2022. Performance (3hrs.) Conceptualized & performed by Alexander Gaeng, Lee Shao-ting & Teck Lim. Location: Galeri Lorong (Jogjakarta, Indonesia)

Proximity – monstrous, perhaps?

In a dim-lit room, two cages on wheels, big enough for a big bird, an endangered reptile, or a human each. These two humans sit, kneel and stoop in it, they cannot stand or stretch their limbs. In small, abrupt movements they set their wheeled cages in movement, toward each other, away from each other, and again toward each other. They seem to avoid each other while approaching each other. Or maybe they are getting close only to miss each other as if the cage would be there for that exact purpose: to keep one’s distance, to shelter the ego, to not lose oneself in an encounter that could be monstrous, perhaps – or just plain beautiful? By hesitating to leave the cage (which they could and eventually will do), the two hold back such revelation.

The third one in this setting is a black-clothed figure with a bag, from which he pulls narrow-shaped leaves and places them on the tiled floor. One leaf each time, each tile a leaf. His movements indicate the passing of time, and the leaves speak of decay. Yet time is far from linear, as much as it is mutable: the figure steps back to review his work, he repositions some leaves, rearranges them, and collects them again in a logic that is never revealed. Stoic of the human drama unfolding around him, the figure sets a rhythm that becomes a pattern, a mantra. The leaves enhance the grid of the tiles, mark a stage, and they create a space one does not dare to step through.

The loose-robed figures in the cages – one figure’s head bald as a monk – light sparklers, one after the other as if in need of a substitute, as if manufacturing a feeling: naive joy. Or are these just acts of boredom? A light bulb bursts as it is smashed by a chair, but the light is still on.

Reviewed by Angela Wittwer, artist and author

Description of the final artwork

Our performance was based highly on trust and understanding, and we decided to take some risks. Our references were mostly performance artists such as Anne Imhof, Bill Viola, Guoqiang Tsai, Marina Abramović, and Tehching Hsieh. We agreed that the piece should include a certain extent of interaction with the audience and be presented in a fine art context. Without a plot, there would certainly be some surprises, and the right attitude to face them was to improvise within our roles. With rigorous concentration, exhaustion of the physical body, and deprivation of verbal communication, we tried out different things within three hours.

Following the concept of “ichi-go ichi-e”, we decided to live the moments onstage to the fullest, like a transient firework. Everyone brought some items to the performance to surprise each other, spice up the experience, and make it playful.

Teck, the god-like observer (some said he represents time) came with a bag of glittered dry leaves (which were sprayed with fresh natural looking green & gold on one side). With his black outfit, he persistently tried to place all his leaves with the unsprayed side facing up during the first half of the performance until the whole floor was covered, before he got started flipping the leaves to the glittered green side midway through the performance. However, after Shao got released from the cage, her act of continuously running in a circle disrupted Teck’s arrangement. She had a bag of cheap sparklers that were hard to ignite. Since her fire never lasted long, she kept trying to light up more sparklers, a paper bag, and even leaves and provided them to Alex, the third performer kept in the cage, as an act of showing love or trying to communicate. Also, a persistent figure, Alex, hid a metal chain behind the wall and used its shaved head as a pencil to draw on the white wall with charcoal. The spinnings of its head then left some entangled, curvy lines on the wall, as if a complicated relationship.

Originally, we imagined cages as a symbol of life or our confined thoughts. The two figures stuck in the cages were not able to touch each other physically nor emotionally-wise but kept trying to get out of the cages and communicate with each other in their stubborn ways, while Teck was mainly watching and doing his own thing in a meditative way. This performance shows how we understood the difficulties in all kinds of relationships, and it is shown in a melancholic and poetic way.

The finale of the performance was met with an unplanned memorable situation. As if imitating or metaphorizing life or relationship in some sense, a cat went into the cage candidly just as the performance was ending. The cat was released almost immediately by an audience member who was immersed in the performance and decided to take action to free our mystery collaborator.

written by Lee Shao-ting

Video Trailer - One encounter, one chance (Ichi-go Ichi-e)

Video Trailer - One encounter, one chance (Ichi-go Ichi-e) Proximity – monstrous, perhaps?In a dim-lit room, two cages on wheels, big enough for a big bird, an endangered reptile, or a human each. These two humans sit, kneel and stoop in it, they cannot stand or stretch their limbs. In small, abrupt movements they set their wheeled cages in movement, toward each other, away from each other, and again toward each other. They seem to avoid each other while approaching each other. Or maybe they are getting close only to miss each other as if the cage would be there for that exact purpose: to keep one’s distance, to shelter the ego, to not lose oneself in an encounter that could be monstrous, perhaps – or just plain beautiful? By hesitating to leave the cage (which they could and eventually will do), the two hold back such revelation.The third one in this setting is a black-clothed figure with a bag, from which he pulls narrow-shaped leaves and places them on the tiled floor. One leaf each time, each tile a leaf. His movements indicate the passing of time, and the leaves speak of decay. Yet time is far from linear, as much as it is mutable: the figure steps back to review his work, he repositions some leaves, rearranges them, and collects them again in a logic that is never revealed. Stoic of the human drama unfolding around him, the figure sets a rhythm that becomes a pattern, a mantra. The leaves enhance the grid of the tiles, mark a stage, and they create a space one does not dare to step through.The loose-robed figures in the cages – one figure’s head bald as a monk – light sparklers, one after the other as if in need of a substitute, as if manufacturing a feeling: naive joy. Or are these just acts of boredom? A light bulb bursts as it is smashed by a chair, but the light is still on.Review from Angela Wittwer, artist and author

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