Islands Schewing Spitting, 2017

Kyoto Art Center, Japan
LEAN ISSUES, group exhibition April 15th–May 14th
– with pernille Kapper Williams, Torben Ribe, Jacob Kirkegaard, Tumi Magnusson, Henrik Ménne, Tove Storch.

www.leanissues.com 

Islands Chewing Spitting (2017)
The work Islands Chewing, Spitting was developed in Kyoto for an exhibition on the Lean method of manufacturing that played a major role in post-war Japan, when the lack of storage space, production space and waste of raw materials were a challenge. Haslund’s performance introduces an alternative hand-to-mouth production cycle using cress – a traditional garnish in Danish dishes – at its centre. Ten performers with white metal rods in their hands enter the room dressed in bright green capes covered in sprouting cress. With choreographed steps they move silently between each other, occasionally forming close formations where they rock gently back and forth so the metal rods clatter against each other, creating a mechanical counterpoint to the organic growth of the costumes. They then resume their calm movements before stopping in a row and starting to bite small mouthfuls of cress off their costumes. These they chew then spit out on large sheets of white paper. They fold the paper in the middle to create symmetrical patterns like green Rorschach drawings. Once they have finished, they stretch the paper flat using the metal rods and lie down one by one surrounded by the spread cress capes. Together they form a poetic archipelago of dreaming faces surrounded by green – a utopian vision in which bodies, food, work, dreams and rest are part of the same harmonious cycle.

The performance was realized during a one month studio residency at Kyoto Art Center April 2017 

Cress sponsored by SONNENTOR organic products 
Supported by the Danish Arts Foundation