We hadn’t seen Miku Tsuchiya for 3 years but after working with her for the four years before that, she is family, and we are connected as artists. We had never met Mark Medrano but saw him perform in Calgary, in a work in progress created by Mark and Kayla Henry; Wojtek was absolutely sure that this was someone who could embody what was his role in Bone Songs. I agreed. It was a leap of faith– we make a lot of those.
We were in the world of Kauai which I hesitate to describe. It is a special place. We had discovered it in January while at a conference and searching for locations for our video, The Neruda Projects. Once there, we knew this had to be the place to shoot this work. Bone Songs is one of the works we are deeply connected to as an important point in our creative, collaborative relationship. We toured it for many years and always found more depth and resonance in our performance, never tiring of exploring that world. The beauty and purity of nature in Kauai is a perfect environment for this work. One reviewer said that we were “lost children of paradise”. Well, Kauai is surely that paradise.
The performers, Miku and Mark, were amazing. Focussed, open, ready to work and ready to brave rocks, sand, sun, waves, creeks, caves, underwater shooting….and let’s don’t forget that Miku had warned Mark (based on her long experience with us) that we often forget to stop, forget to eat, forget to take breaks, forget that time is passing. So, they were prepared with water, snacks, sun block, towels. They rolled right with us.
Now, we are sitting with all the footage, viewing, logging, rating shots, arranging and re-arranging…missing spending all day and all evening together as a team and enjoying reliving some of those moments.
Looking forward to sharing some of the process here!