Hwa [화]
Critical Response, 2024
Hwa was presented late in the evening, and I was briefly surprised to encounter materials that are normally prohibited in theatre spaces: melting ice, boiling water, fire, and smoke. All of these materials are either generally not permitted in contemporary theatres or require special authorization. I imagine you were aware of the risks involved in working with them. Although safety was addressed immediately after the performance, it is something that can never be emphasized too much. At the same time, I found myself thinking how fortunate it was that this work could take place within the institutional framework of a school, as part of a class. Had it been presented in a conventional theatre, it would likely have required lengthy negotiations and coordination with venue staff.
As for the performance itself, I was struck by the persistent attention and experimentation devoted to all three materials: ice, candlelight, and incense. None of the materials you selected are substances that can be easily controlled according to human intention. The process may therefore have been demanding, yet I was impressed by how each researcher endured, negotiated with, or perhaps absorbed these materials. The relationship you established between “materiality” and “corporeality” also seemed to reveal something of your own methods.
What I am curious about, however, is what each participant discovered after establishing this relationship between materiality and corporeality. Did the two necessarily remain separate? Or did the boundary between them shift through the practice? As the title of the session, Hwa, suggests, did “transformation” emerge somewhere between these two boundaries?
I also wonder whether the materials you selected could be replaced by imagination or representation rather than by their actual physical presence. If this is impossible, why?
Apart from these questions, each participant left a very strong impression and carried a distinctly different energy. (For example, the person working with ice gave the impression of looking not simply at ice, but at something like “fire and ice.”) However, if you are not yet fully aware of your own particular strengths or attractions, it might be worth reflecting on what kind of presence you become when encountering an audience onstage.
For someone who considers themselves passive or shy, a month-long fixation on the self may feel uncomfortable. Rather than relying on what others have said about you, who you were in the past, or what you have habitually considered yourself to be, you might explore your presence as it exists here and now. In doing so, you may discover a new version of yourself beyond those fixed ideas. Perhaps this process of finding a new self is one of the reasons we dance, and one of the forces that keeps us moving.
Written by [Jean Lee], Art Critic
Following the showcase and artist talk of Hwa, 2024.
English translation from the original Korean text.