Selections from sketchbook sketches based on the Cheongmu Dancers of South Korea.
Sublimation is a 2021 project commissioned by the MMCA and produced by filmmaker Stone Johnston with the cooperation from the National Dance Company of the National Theatre, culminating in an immersion experience for the 2022 exhibition Praise of Life.
Cheoyongmu 처용무 is one of the oldest recorded Korean dances, preserved for more than a millennia in the royal court as a rite of purification. The five dancers reflect the five cardinal directions, each represented by five elemental colors.
The song in the finale is titled Beth, inspired from the acrostic psalm written with each line starting with the Hebrew letter bet (ב)which begins by asking the question, “How can a man keep his way pure?” The lyrics begin with a reflection upon the events leading up to the world’s first murder recorded in Genesis and end with mourning the 26 souls lost to the vengeful rage of one man in Texas in 2017, who failed to walk in the same restraint.
