“Skeleton Flower” Blooms Out of Trauma
Kim Ip
Degenerate Art Ensemble’s Skeleton Flower starts with beautiful and eclectic sounds from composer and sound designer Joshua Kohl. Crow Nishimura enters the scene seeking, searching for something lost. From beginning to end, Skeleton Flower is a mosaic of punk-grunge, well-produced sound design, fast-paced solo choreography, and storytelling. The storytelling is presented through quick moving, intricate solos, featuring pre-recorded narration, Bjork-like lullabies, and anthemic mantras.
Skeleton Flower is an EPIC tale of tales told in 1 hour and 20 minutes. Crow makes references to her childhood fairy tales The Red Shoes, Wild Swans, and Fitcher’s Bird. While these fairytales are vaguely familiar to me it didn’t matter that I had no personal relationship to them. Many of these fairytales would be referenced by including props like a pair of red shoes that fall from the sky or a book that gets stuck to Crow’s face as she is moving about the open stage. The scenography is minimal with delicate paper screens flown in and out of the space, projected onto these screens are close ups of Crow in different stages of emotion. With minimal scenography, I was able to focus on the sounds, the moody lighting, rich storytelling, and grand costumes. Skeleton Flower is a semi-autobiographical epic fairytale and response to familial trauma and assault. Perhaps, using these fairytales afforded Crow, as an artist, a play space and alternative storyline that felt separate from her own inherited trauma. Throughout the performance Crow deftly dances alongside her narration about how her family trauma is unable to be pulled apart; her personal trauma is unable to be unraveled:
“Is it the repetition over generations
Of an act of violence
That makes its undoing so difficult?
We walk the hallways.
Tracing our ancestors footsteps
Trying to break the bindings of our past.
Marking a new, more nimble path.
We follow her.
Not out of habit as we once did,
But as a way to carefully plot our own trajectories.”
I hear this passage repeated throughout the duration of the performance with small poetic changes in each stanza that transform from Grandmother’s footsteps to mother to finally Crow’s footsteps. Crow guides the audience through what is an attempted unraveling of her familial trauma and we bear witness to this.
Surrealism plays a huge role in creating safety in the risks and tragedy of Crow’s semi-autobiographical story shared in the performance. The spoken content tells the story of Crow and the visual landscape is as majestic as it is dark. I am grateful for the many opportunities to be carried away by entertaining interludes of music videos and kaiju-style videos of Godzilla vs. Mothra. This is how we experience Fitcher’s Bird as a fairytale–shown as a music video with two dancers brandishing knives and a haunting pile of mannequins meant to represent the chopped up bodies of her siblings. Again, the imagery is carefully crafted favoring surrealism and comic relief to soften the darkness of the tragedy. A very smart choice on behalf of the artists. Even the introduction of violent family dynamics is hilariously laid out as Godzilla vs Mothra, with dad as Godzilla and mom as Mothra and even though the visuals of dad huffing and puffing are clearly angry and become violent, the audience is encouraged to laugh along with the slapstick antics of the two characters in very clear conflict. I can only imagine what it would’ve been like to observe such conflict as a young child.
While the themes of Skeleton Flower are difficult to swallow, giving respect to those who have experienced family trauma or physical assault within a relationship is very important. About twenty minutes before the end of show, a track plays of various individuals recounting family trauma or assault. There is an acknowledgment of what it means to carry these stories that are lived inside of their bodies. While I am grateful for their stories–I wonder how they are connected to the rehearsal process and embodiment of Skeleton Flower, but perhaps this question is meant for a longer iteration of the work.
For all its dreamy beauty and fantastical videos, Skeleton Flower culturally spoke into an Asian expressionism I hope to see more of. The kind of art that isn’t in service of “saving face”. I do believe Skeleton Flower recounts moments that were difficult for Crow and the question I asked throughout the performance is: “can embodying all these fairytale characters become a testament to her own trauma?” Does performing in the present transmute an embodied experience of trauma in the past? To me, producing and performing this work is carrying out dreams our ancestors didn’t even know were possible–a dream that prioritizes Crow’s fullest expression.
Kim Ip choreographs, directs, produces, and dramaturgically supports the creation of dance works, drag performances, and photoshoots. She is ⅙ of ABG (Asian Babe Gang) and loves poetry as much as she loves to be entertained. krimmip.com
