Mama Lee’s Bathhouse

Staging Korean Bathhouse

A performance exploring the embodied rituals of the Korean bathhouse, drawn from memories I have observed since the age of seven. Though not a single drop of water was used, the space was thick with humidity, created through light and aluminum foil, evoking the dampness and sticky residue of time. By sharing this sensory nostalgia of Korean rituals with dancers from entirely different cultural backgrounds, the work summoned deeply intimate recollections in unexpected ways.

Grandma? Mom? The lady? The virgin? A 90-year-old woman? and her caregiver. I also saw them rubbing, scrubbing, applying yogurt, sometimes cucumber, massaging, kneading, rinsing, talking, comforting, laughing, yelling, cursing, and worrying.

Location

California Institute of the Arts, CA, US‍

Medium

A tub, lanterns, overhead projector, live drawing, aluminum foil

Collaborators

GĒR Collective (performance), Odessa Newman (choreography), Kaiqi Zhang & Samuel Mainzer (costume), Kyle Eichinger (light), Arushi Kejariwal & Abril Jiang (production design), Hao Chen (illustration), Anne Kelly (producing)