26
Oct/11

RESIDUE: AN INSTALLATION BY EIKO & KOMA

26
Oct/11

Eiko & Koma take a look back at their life and career in “Residue” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Vincent Astor Gallery
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, 111 Amsterdam Ave. between 64th & 65th Sts.
Through Saturday, October 29, free, 12 noon – 6:00 or 8:00
www.eikoandkoma.org/residue
www.nypl.org

It’s been quite a year for Japanese dance couple Eiko & Koma here in their home base of New York City. Celebrating their fortieth anniversary together, Eiko Otake and Takashi Koma Otake performed the postapocalyptic dance installation Naked at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in the spring, went for a dip in the Paul Milstein Pool on Lincoln Center’s Hearst Plaza for the mesmerizing Water this summer, and held numerous local talks and workshops. And, as part of their three-year Retrospective Project, they’re taking a look back at their career in the unique gallery installation “Residue,” on view at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts through October 29. Designer Eric Bissell has transformed the Vincent Astor Gallery into a dark, hypnotic space featuring paraphernalia from throughout Eiko & Koma’s career, including costumes, sets, a series of white rectangular wells screening videos at the bottom, and a central structure similar to the Naked wall where visitors can walk in, sit down, and watch Naked on a monitor on the floor. “Residue” highlights such works as Hunger, River, White Dance, Thirst, Grain, Wind, Tree, and Offering, organic pieces in which Eiko and Koma are often naked, performing in the outdoors or on stark sets. “It is very clear nothing lasts,” Koma says in the exhibition brochure. “So this installation too is not an attempt to last or save what we have done,” Eiko responds. “We just look at the ‘dust’ and enjoy that we can look at it for now.” Visitors will be able to look at and enjoy the dust of Eiko and Koma’s continuing adventurous career through the end of the week, and as an added treat the duo will be at the gallery on Saturday from 4:00 to 6:00 to meet and greet everyone who stops by.