“Sculptural Rebirth” is a 60-minute long performance held at Yokohama Branch of former Dai-Ichi Bank in 2023, at Blue Cube, Tama Art University in 2024 and at Vancouver Art Gallery in 2025. Performers experience a process of monologue about their own conflict, the whole body being cast in a plaster mold and shedding the plaster shell. Their consciousness naturally goes inside themselves by being locked down in the plaster mold and their visual and hearing senses being shut. The plaster in the form of liquid at the beginning eventually becomes hard as an armour and functions as a support that fits the whole body. The highlight of this artwork is the time of self-reflection wrapped in a custom shelter. By applying plaster mixed with fiber on the back side of the body, the mold of body can be left like an empty “shell.” At Chiba City Arts Triennale, this artwork is prepared as a workshop, not as a performance and shells as “past self” are exhibited thereafter. We will recruit participants from local citizens, decide the pose based on conversations and conduct plaster casting. Shells are displayed together with participants’ words and record photos.

[Types of citizen involvement] Workshop, Exhibition viewing