cokaseki.com

Finally you have to see those ugly, mispainted eyes. You judge them. They don’t go away. Then you stop bothering to judge them. They still don’t go away. And then they look back at you and they don’t go away. And maybe, just maybe, you fall in love.

Monster Mechanism is a work in progress collaboration between Sherwood Chen and Yuko Kaseki. From the uncanny valley towards a terra incognita, we taste fractures in systems, devolution in evolution and tension between phobia and affection. Domestic aliens falling in endless suspension. Cheap imitations of an unknown nationalism.

YUKO KASEKI (JP / DE) is director of company cokaseki, choreographer, Butoh dancer, performer, improviser and teacher in Berlin since 1995. She performs in solo and ensemble pieces and improvisations worldwide. These works are physical performances that incorporate Butoh, performance, object design, texts and soundscapes. International collaborations include inkBoat (SF), Tableau Stations (SF), CAVE (New York), Poema Theatre (Moscow), Salad Theater (Seoul) and more. She is also a key collaborator with mixed ability artists including Theater Thikwa (Berlin), Roland Walter (Berlin), Sung Kuk Kang (Seoul) and Zan-Chen Liao (Taipei). www.cokaseki.com

SHERWOOD CHEN (US / FR) has worked as a performer with artists including Anna Halprin, Xavier Le Roy, Min Tanaka, Sara Shelton Mann, inkBoat / Ko Murobushi, Christine Bonansea and Liz Santoro. He leads movement workshops internationally in-studio and in natural and urban landscapes. For over twenty years, he has contributed to Body Weather research initiated by Tanaka and his associates. www.sherwoodchen.com