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My work focuses on the theme of physicality, combining digital media with the movements of Butoh, a uniquely Japanese modern contemporary dance form.

"HUMAN PERFORMER" re-examines questions of Asian (Japanese) female physicality, patriarchy and tradition, and essentialism in the context of post-human feminism.

Butoh dance, also known as dance of darkness, was created by Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno after World War II as a means of re-establishing Japanese cultural identity. Butoh dance moved away from modernization and Western dance styles, founding Butoh on unknown principles such as philosophy, the subconscious, primal instincts, and ancient, incomprehensible myths.

Tradition is the strong identity of the Japanese people, and out of proportion to capitalist social development, it continues to reign as a source of pride in its prestigious beauty, hiding the absurdity hidden within its traditions. ( Japan ranks 116th out of 146 countries on the 2022 Global Gender Gap Index (8th from the bottom in the political field).

This work features "Noh," an ancient traditional Japanese performing art. Noh and other traditional Japanese cultures have long been off-limits to women. Most performances on the Noh play are performed by men, including the female roles. Performers wear Noh masks, and the story unfolds in a spiritual world of humans, spirits, demons, and other characters. The mask of an elderly man, "Okina”, is the most prestigious of all Noh masks. The "Okina” mask is symbolic of the deeply rooted male supremacy in the art world, based on the history of patriarchy and the disdain for women. The thinking is what men create is essential and the identity of “Okina” is similar to that of the Vitruvian figure in the West.

In this piece, I mixed these faces - the face of my elderly self masculinized by AI, the face of a traditional elderly man, and the face of a traditional Japanese woman - to explore the question of tradition and essentialism, the matrix, what are the privileged values necessarily possessed by gender and age, what does it mean to be a MAN = human being?  Where does the significance of physicality, with its boundaries and otherness, converge?