Washi MM (2017)

A video documentation of a live performance at LUX in London, 2017. In 2003, I saw Drawings for Expanding Permutation (1969) by the UK artist Mary Martin at a gallery in London. Paul Martin, Mary Martin’s son, kindly gave me a book with pictures of her drawings that I constantly refer to for my Washi Series. This is a set of films and performances, made in response to Martin’s work, that uses the patterned colors of adhesive Japanese washi tape applied directly to clear 16mm film. These patterns are also responsible for the optical soundtracks of the films. In Washi MM three 16mm projectors are used as live instruments of performance to explore rhythmic patterns of color and sound created by the overlays of washi tape.