Photo by: Leif Norman

Photo by: Leif Norman The work was premiered on June 3, 2022 at Moving Roots: Reflections. This work is based on a poem written in the summer of 2020 while being under stress due to personal realizations and the world pandemic. The inspiration for the performance was driven from the works of Butoh artists. The poem is originally written in Russian and later translated into English. It is an artist’s experiment on how the audience’s perception of the poem changes if they don’t know the meaning of the words in foreign language. Here's the English translation of the poem below.

* English Translation *

I made it all up:
You, your eyes, your character, and body…
I made it all up:
Landscape, skies, wind, pine trees, and chickadee.

Sometimes I would ask myself
How were those things
Produced by my imagination?
Why did I think of 5, not 6 books on the shelf?
And what is real is just my mind’s connotation.

Photo by: Leif Norman What lessons my creative consciousness will strive,
When making running, always-changing world around?
If all that’s true, then bringing dreams to life
For one who’s making world is not compound.

And all you need is an ability to ask,
And clarity in your requests and wishes.
Don’t hide your face from Macrocosm in mask
Just straight up tell it all of your ambitions.

All that you see around is your thought,
A well-thought-through delusionary image…
Do others see the same one or not?
How many more truths people have envisaged?

Shhhh…*whispering* river rolling over rocks…
See? Water streaming all your grieves and feelings…
It’s carrying dreams, your stories, and your talks
That urge to reach to other human beings.

I made it all up:
World, myself in it *laugh*
And all around is just my mind’s reflection.
I made it all up:
This is how it is
It's a pure dream inside creationist’s perfection.

* * *

Author/Performer/Projections idea: Anastasia Evsigneeva
Lighting design: Hugh Conacher
Outside- eye: Emily Solstice Tait