dancing with ghosts corey watanabe
dance liberation migration rejuvenation
It began as dance among the stars. My spirit longed to leap towards the cosmos but my heart felt so heavy. A mysterious energy, something beyond gravity seemed to capture me. I was a dancer that could not move. A river that could not flow. An artist that could not speak. My body to sank towards the cold boards of the studio floor. Visions of hay stuffed mattress in a horse stable, the sound of desert crickets and rolling train cars beyond shaded window panes, the glimpse of a distant mountain shrouded by dust and barbed wire. Ghostly memories—so visceral—rose from deep within, silent and contained. — June Watanabe
Rooted across and in between all geographies, our landscapes holds troves of entangled human and non-human experience. Buried beneath the surface, these stories speak to moments of joy, care and interspecies relationships as well as to the ghosts of ecological disturbance, trauma and displacement. As a landscape designer, I often find myself facing sites haunted by these ghosts. When given the ruins, I’ve begun to ask: what does it mean to acknowledge a wound that may never – and perhaps should never – be fully healed? As frightening as they may seem, these ghosts might be the root of something beyond ourselves. Though trained as a landscape designer, I see myself more as a maker tied to a generation of creatives whose practices unfold through personal histories in relationship with the land. One story close to my heart is the relationship between myself, Corey Watanabe, and my grandmother, June Watanabe, a modern dancer. Bound by a creative practice rooted in spiritual repair, we’ve entered a lifelong journey: learning to dance with our ghosts. this page: June Watanabe Sketch of Phragmites australis , in the west considered an invasive plant with origins in eastern Asia, initially brought to the east coast of North America with ship ballast — discarded earth often used to stabilise ships during voyages overseas. facing page: Japanese American incarcerees in the Santa Anita Racecoure stables, ca 1941. My grandmother June (bottom left), her sister Mayumi and mother Mariko (right), and a family friend at Heart Mountain, ca 1943.
Arne Folkedal
Heart Mountain Concentration Camp, 1941-1945
Corey Watanabe
24 on site review 47 :: standing still
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