
50 minutes
Creation/performance:
Shion Skye Carter, Miya Turnbull
Music: Stefan Nazarevich
Dramaturg: Julie Tamiko Manning
Photography: Nanne Springer
Omote (面)
Omote (面) is 50-minute duet co-created by Vancouver-based dance artist Shion Skye Carter and Halifax-based mask artist Miya Turnbull, who came together to exchange their artistic practices despite living on opposite coasts of Canada.
Performing with nearly 100 handmade photo-masks of their faces, coming in myriad shapes and expressions, the distorted imagery in this work borders on uncanny, challenging traditional ideas of beauty while comparing and contrasting their mixed Japanese Canadian heritage. Shion’s subtle, gestural choreography oscillates between meditative flow and fragmented, corrosive glitching to express the uncanny nature of Miya’s hand-made masks, turning them into extensions of the body. At times, the artists evoke the ritualistic nature of Japanese traditions, such as the tea ceremony. Articulating the Japanese concept of honne本音(a person's true feelings) and tatemae建前 (their public face), gestures and tableau explore layers of being and fragmentation of the self, manipulating what is revealed and hidden, honing in on the churning, transitory nature of identity.
The title "Omote (面)" holds a double meaning, translating to both 'surface/face' (omote) and 'mask' (men).
The project began as a short film, the result of meeting and working together through Yume, Digital Dreams. This collaborative creative incubator presented by Tashme Productions in 2022 united Japanese Canadian artists from across the country to experiment with collaboration. The short film that came out of Yume has since been screened at film festivals and galleries in Canada, Germany, China, and Bulgaria.
The project then evolved into a 20-minute live performance, commissioned by CanAsian Dance Festival, co-presented by Tangente and Festival Accès Asie, and supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. The two artists performed together with the masks in May 2023 in Montréal, Quebec and Toronto, Ontario, where they met photographer Nanne Springer, who captured the serene, haunting beauty of this project on film. Miya and Shion expanded the work to a full-length performance, and had their world premieres in Halifax, NS (Live Art Dance) and Vancouver, BC (Vancouver International Dance Festival) in Feb/Mar 2025.
The project also took an exciting new form as the Omote Photo Book, published through the Booooooom Art & Photo book award and available for purchase (contact Miya Turnbull).
Past and current iterations of this project have been made possible with support from Booooooom Art & Photo book award, Canada Council for the Arts, CanAsian Dance, Festival Accès Asie, Halifax Dance, Kinetic Studio, Tangente, Live Art Dance, Vancouver International Dance Festival, Powell Street Festival, and Tashme Productions.