The further you root, the further you fly

by Kunji Ikeda (Canada), Alumn of Multidisciplinary Residency, 2020 and Virtual Residency, 2021.

I’ve encountered this idea in multiple artistic practices: 

- voice work (rooting into deep breathe to release the higher falsetto)

- dance work (sending energy down in order to release the upper body into a pirouette)

and hyper-present within this work 

- mutual safety and trust.

I wouldn’t want to enter into a research and creation residency of this nature with just anyone, my talented and passionate co-creators and I have continually proven to each other that there is deep care for one another. It’s a beautiful process of laughing at ourselves, shaking our fists at the clouds, and crying over spilt energy. We’ve been able to console and confront all the ideas and processes that you can read about in previous posts.

Rooting down into each other to see where we can fly

I have felt an artistic circular routine made up of periods of intense research, work, and rest. Without one of those within a pattern I feel at a disadvantage to a creative state. This time together has been an invigorating time of research and work with spacious rest in between our meetings. We’re able to start to shake loose some artistic thoughts and ideas that are too big for me alone. If I tried on my own to research these huge, tiring, political machinations I would be overwhelmed and turn bitter towards my process and ultimately my failure. In this community of unique thought and discussion, there have been floods of revelation, connection, and delight that cannot exist in a vacuum of my own thoughts and experiences; my own lens isn’t wide enough. 

Did we know what we were getting ourselves into?

In theory, yes.

We knew it would be revelatory, thought provoking, and that we would each come away with our own personal gems and seeds to continue working towards.

In our complex multidis, multigeneration, multicultural community we’ve each had the opportunity to inspire and be inspired with one another.

Did we know what we were getting ourselves into?

Not in the slightest.

Borders, Borderlands and Crossings

A work-in-progress showing exploring the movement of precious metals, seeds, and humans across borders, both imagined and real.
​
Join in to share your thoughts and reflections as L'AiR Arts four international alumni: 
Kunji Mark Ikeda (Canada), Shireen Ikramullah Khan (Netherlands), Mayumi Lashbrook (Canada) and Eric Lawrence Taylor (USA) connect for a 7-week multi-disciplinary virtual residency, culminating in a public work-in-progress showing.

Date: Saturday August 7th
Time: 11:00am MT / 1:00pm ET / 7:00pm CEST
Location: Online through Zoom, FREE!
​
For more information and to register click here.