M.  Butterfly (After Shigeko Kubota)  2007
Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, New York City
November 10, 2007
Co-sponsored by Franklin Furnace Archive,
Performance Studies International, & NYU.

Performance & installation

M. Butterfly (After Shigeko Kubota) is, by design, citational:
In 1960, La Monte Young wrote his Composition 1960 #5, which instructs the performer to “Turn a butterfly (or any number of butterflies) loose in the performance area.”

In 1965, Shigeko Kubota performed her Vaginal
Painting at the Perpetual Fluxus Festival,
Cinemateque, NYC.

In 1988, David Henry Hwang’s play M. Butterfly was produced on Broadway, NYC.

In 2007, these historically significant pieces – all performed in NYC - become departure points that converge onto one re-mixed performance,with potential for divergent readings that have contemporary social/political/racial/sexual implications. Reinterpreting performative works from the past, for Khang, becomes a means to re-imagine new poetic and political strategies for the present.

1 – 7: performance

video: Irene Loughlin, Lissette Olivares

 

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