Stills of performance-based film, Rites (2022)
Rites explores is a series of filmic performances reimagining of the ancestral ritual, jesa, a memorial service traditionally practiced on the anniversary day of the ancestor’s death and centered on offerings of food, wine, and vocal recitations. Honoring five generations of family lineage, the ritual is made of a series of complex and elaborately prepared rites, traditionally performed by eldest members of the family. In the adaptation, we stage movements that follow the jesa ritual, but also deviate from the original practice and include folkloric performances in front of royal burial sites, temples, and prehistoric archaeological ruins of sacred monuments. Rites explore ideas of belonging amidst displacement and broadening honoring of bloodlines to include larger, more communal perspectives.
In collaboration with artist Nicholas Oh
Filmed in location: Gyeong-ju, South Korea
Rites explores is a series of filmic performances reimagining of the ancestral ritual, jesa, a memorial service traditionally practiced on the anniversary day of the ancestor’s death and centered on offerings of food, wine, and vocal recitations. Honoring five generations of family lineage, the ritual is made of a series of complex and elaborately prepared rites, traditionally performed by eldest members of the family. In the adaptation, we stage movements that follow the jesa ritual, but also deviate from the original practice and include folkloric performances in front of royal burial sites, temples, and prehistoric archaeological ruins of sacred monuments. Rites explore ideas of belonging amidst displacement and broadening honoring of bloodlines to include larger, more communal perspectives.
In collaboration with artist Nicholas Oh
Filmed in location: Gyeong-ju, South Korea