A Needle Woman Mexico City

There is a Korean performance artist–Kim Sooja–whose videotaped performance, A Needle Woman, consists of the artist, wearing traditional dress with a long braid down her back, seen only from the back, standing very still in one spot in the center of crowded areas of major cities–Tokyo, Singapore, Delhi, New York, London etc.–while rushing pedestrians maneuver around her.

Brent and I are presently in Tokyo; I have made loads of notes and will post some experiences, but this is my first chance to go online for any extended length of time. It has been extremely hot since we arrived more than a week ago, first in Osaka then in Kyoto which appears to be the hottest spot in Japan with temperatures in the high nineties–or thirties, depending upon how you’re measuring, and now, in Tokyo the temperature is hovering around the ninety mark. We were out earlier in the day, then walked a few blocks to lunch and returned to the cool of the hotel room where Brent slept off his persistent sinus headache. Continue reading →