UMMA-YA
UMMA-YA (Korean: MAMA-YA) tells the story of a young boy who learns she will be a mother. A solo interdisciplinary work for violin, viola, voice, and body, UMMA-YA draws from the dense, spiritual matter of Korean folk & shamanic performance traditions, and the extemporaneous sonic invention of American experimentalism. With dance and movement inspired by Japanese Butoh and Korean shamanic ritual, and storytelling that blends myth and autobiography, UMMA-YA explores transformation and transgression, queer ritual and ancestry, and the spiritual legacies of colonialism.
Production team: Sueann Leung, costume design; Charles Nicola, makeup; Mengwen Cao, photography.
Originally presented and live streamed by Roulette Intermedium on Saturday, June 26th 2021. Made possible by a 2021 Van Lier Fellowship from Roulette Intermedium.
In my solo work, UMMA-YA, in which a young boy learns she will be a mother, I explored the very personal story of my own transformation through an auto-mythology, or blur of autobiography and invented mythology. With musical and dance forms drawn from Korean traditional music and shamanic ritual, I used the work as a real-life, functional magic; one that catalyzed and made space for a necessary transformation, and shared that process nakedly, tenderly, and madly.
UMMA-YA (excerpts)
Juni One Set
Boy mother / faceless bloom
Juni One Set is Senga Nengudi (Colorado Springs), eddy kwon (Brooklyn), and Degenerate Art Ensemble’s Haruko Crow Nishimura & Joshua Kohl (Seattle).
Threading mythology and autobiography, while drawing from the diverse lineages of queer, anticolonial, and care-based artistic practices, Boy mother / faceless bloom is an interdisciplinary performance work by Juni One Set. Dance, music, poetry, ritual, and sculptural installation converge to tell a story of transformation, transgression, and the formation of new trancestral lines.
The piece has been co-created through an intensely collaborative process over the span of four years by Juni One Set: Senga Nengudi, eddy kwon, and Degenerate Art Ensemble’s Haruko Crow Nishimura and Joshua Kohl. Intuitive play, loving conversations, and a deep sense of trust allowed for the generative convergence of diverse artistic practices and life experiences.
Statement
“Our work is intensely collaborative, rooted in the deepest respect and love we hold for one another. Through an intentional, transformational process, we build a world within which we can be free. Our bodies live in fear, in the shadows of beginning-less violence, in joy and in care. Through ritual and embodiment, we find openings for healing and growth and invite others to arrive. We are trying to tell a story we never want to end.”
Created, Directed, and Performed by Juni One Set:
Senga Nengudi: co-creator, sculptural & costume design, movement
eddy kwon: co-creator, music, movement
Haruko Crow Nishimura: co-creator, movement, music
Joshua Kohl: co-creator, music, sound design, stage design
Degenerate Art Ensemble Production Team
Lighting Designer: Jessica Trundy
Projection Designer: Leo Mayberry
Video Editors: Ian Lucero and Leo Mayberry
Cinematographers: Ian Lucero and Leo Mayberry
Co-commissioned by the National Performance Network Creation Fund, Colorado College Performing Arts and Department of Innovation & Creativity, Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, and Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati. Additional support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Premiered at Colorado College in February 2022. Upcoming 2023 performances at Dia Art Foundation and more.
There is a patten / slow
(and understood as slow)
there is sweetness in a death
(in a cream)
in knowing deep inside
that a Knowing will, too
one day grow
irresistible
flooding you
like gravity like a star,
undeterred by your clever
loveliness.
Live performance at MATA in March 2022
Improvisational Friendship Ceremony
Improvisational Friendship Ceremony is a practice of tenderness, wildness, generosity, and joy. By creating a ritual space within which these qualities of experience can emerge, we catalyze an extemporaneous music that is embedded with the sensations of freedom.
There is no musical score, only aloose sequence of instructions meant to guide the process.
Improvisational Friendship Ceremony #9 with Lester St. Louis (cello)
VIOLIN-VIOLA
The Art Ensemble of Chicago
50th Anniversary / The Sixth Decade
One of the most influential and visionary groups to grow out of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), The Art Ensemble of Chicago is celebrating its 50th anniversary with an expanded collective of musicians. eddy joins the AEOC as a violinist/violist and improviser, along with Tomeka Reid (cello), Jean Cook (violin), Silvia Bolognesi (bass), Junius Paul (Bass), Jaribu Shahid (bass), Nicole Mitchell (flute), Hugh Ragin (trumpet), Rocco Córdova (voice), Moor Mother (poetry, voice), Dudu Kouaté (percussion), and the AEOC’s Roscoe Mitchell and Famoudou Don Moye.
“WE ARE ON THE EDGE” double album released in 2019 on Pi Recordings and Erased Tapes (vinyl) — PURCHASE HERE & HERE.
“THE SIXTH DECADE - FROM PARIS TO PARIS” released in January 2023 on RogueArt – Purchase HERE & HERE.
“...the record is a triumph, and if this isn’t what the original Art Ensemble sounded like, it is certainly the kind of experimental work it was trying to carve out space for.” (New York Times)
“Beyond its numerous recordings and performances, the ensemble’s legacy resides in the lasting impact the group’s sound has had on younger players, and the success of this show owed in no small part to its younger guests.” (Artforum)
International Contemporary Ensemble
Lesley Mok’s “stilled-leaf chatter”
eddy kwon – violin; Cory Smythe – piano & microtonal synthesizer; Dan Lippel – guitar; Lesley Mok – drums & composition
September 20, 2022 at Joe's Pub. Video courtesy of Joe's Pub
Improvisation with Cory Smythe
eddy kwon – violin
Cory Smythe – piano & microtonal synthesizer
December 9, 2022 at Target Margin Theater as part of International Contemporary Ensemble's program. Video courtesy of the Digitice Media Team.
Susan Alcorn Quintet
Pedernal
Susan Alcorn - Pedal Steel Guitar
eddy kwon - Violin
Mary Halvorson - Guitar
Michael Formanek - Bass
Ryan Sawyer - Drums
Written during a retreat on a New Mexico mesa, “Pedernal” is Susan Alcorn’s first album as a bandleader. The compositions blend free and structured improvisations with expansive and contemplative writing.
Deep gratitude to hero Mark Feldman, who plays violin on the album.
tombstar
eddy kwon – violin
Isabel Crespo Pardo – voice
Zekkereya El-magharbel – trombone
Lesley Mok – drums
A new ensemble comprising improvisers, composer-performers, and interdisciplinary artists from Brooklyn and Detroit who explore the collective subconscious through improvisation, composition, and raucous, joyful experimentation. At once playful, ritualistic, ecstatic, grave, and surprising, the ensemble’s process and expressive possibilities are informed by each artist’s interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary practices, as well as a collective commitment to egalitarian decision making, friendship, and individual autonomy.
VIOLENCE
VIOLENCE is a performance piece for electro-acoustic quartet and tape. It is a reflection on the complex structures of violence that have, over many hundreds of years, created conditions for desperation, exclusion, callousness, and (ultimately) death in America.
VIOLENCE is a modest attempt to connect the expression of these structures in all their complexity.
VIOLENCE was commissioned by the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center for their 2015-16 Black Box Performance Series.
VIOLENCE (excerpts) from eddy kwon on Vimeo.
a r c h i p e l a g o
a r c h i p e l a g o is a single movement work for amplified string quartet inspired by Eric K M Clark's Deprivation Music. The quartet performs the exact same score from memory, but without the practical use of their eyes and ears. This sensory deprivation is achieved through the use of blindfolds, earplugs, and over-ear headphones blasting white noise. Harmonic, melodic, formal, and spatial elements were inspired by the Fibonacci sequence. The music is measured entirely in seconds, or 60 bpm, and lasts approximately 28 minutes and 20 seconds.
a r c h i p e l a g o was commissioned by the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center for their 2015-16 Black Box Performance Series.
a r c h i p e l a g o (excerpts) from eddy kwon on Vimeo.
