ADAM LENZ
producer . curator . educator . artist
Bell Child
dance, audio, and drawing
created by Adam Lenz & Miki Orihara
The Watermill Center
Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) created a substantial body of ceramics during three trips to Japan in 1931, 1950, and 1952. These works draw heavily upon the history of Japanese ceramics, especially the haniwa funerary sculptures of the Kofun period. Noguchi's ceramic works are often overlooked, but engage a powerful narrative about his connection with Japan and the complexity of his Japanese-American identity. Bell Child is a dance work developed with choreographer and dancer Miki Orihara. The music is composed of manipulated audio recordings derived entirely from ceramic objects, and the choreography blends Orihara's background in traditional Japanese dance and her modernist training with Martha Graham. The work abstractly explores Noguchi’s biography and body of ceramic sculpture, the clay sculpting process, and twentieth-century Japanese history.
Performance | The Watermill Center
Water Mill, New York
May 26, 2022
Artist Residency | The Watermill Center
Water Mill, New York
May 16–27, 2022
The residency and performance were supported by mediaThe foundation inc. and through the Maria Bacardi Artist Scholarship, established by a generous gift from artist Maria Pessino, in honor of her late grandmother.
Rehearsal and performance images, Bell Child, 2022. Images by Lindsay Morris and Adam Lenz, courtesy of The Watermill Center and Adam Lenz.