Cowboy (2022-)

Long-term durational performance, 10-20 minutes per iteration, 6 piece shaving kit & microphone

A straight razor shave using a microphone as a mirror; the slicing of hair magnified until it becomes meditation, a sound piece as the audience holds it's breath.

Cowboy (2022) is in many ways a durational performance, investigating the relationship between self and object over time through ritual. The shaving kit is worn out by my body and movements, while the tools in turn shape me- my face, my hair, my skin, my muscles, my brain.

Due to the blade gradually dulling from use an additional honing performance was added In the summer of 2023 as part of the Like a Western project conducted in Tokyo. This new performance, titled Rattlesnake Charmer (2023), is the public honing of the razor using methods from Jim Rion’s 2011 translation of Honing Razors and Nihonkamisori by Kousuke Iwasaki (1963) and natural whetstones.