BURDEN OF PURPOSE

Joe Iano Photography

BURDEN OF PURPOSE is a 2-person study with separate but complimentary cycles being performed by A K Mimi Allin & Haruko Nishimura at Mount Pleasant Cemetery on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle. This work began on 1 January 2013. At the time of this posting, it is 23 January and we have carried 23 burdens. Our goal is 49. We need 26 more participants. We are grateful for every participant.

Here is what to expect. Mimi, in a work/rest cycle, lies on the ground until she is cold, then rises to work, raking grass, until she is warm. Haruko, in a silence/song cycle, carries a heavy rock until she is tired, then climbs a tree to sing folk songs, as a release and a blessing. We move between tasks until cold and fatigued, then depart to find dialog with our viewers. Participants bring burdens for Haruko to carry  (literal, symbolic or metaphorical) and lay something (an idea, image, thought, person) to rest with Mimi. Contact the artists to coordinate a visit. Mimi: mimiallin@gmail.com and Haruko: goodharuko@gmail.com. See our blog Purpose of Burden for detailed information about this work and our schedule.

There is an open call to all POETS & WRITERS to witness our work and write from the experience. So far two poems have been written. We hope for many more. Please contact us. If you are a professional photographer and wish to document our work, we want you. We are experimenting with the idea of photographer as witnesses/participant and hope to bring all the image makers together at the close of the project to dialog about their role. We've had four photographers work with us so far. We hope for many more. We're involving numerous artists in the hopes of uncovering the greatest number of facets which will hopefully help us get closer to the source of our cycles (the opposing forces).

This project will culminate in some form of group study or show to include all art that is generated. Various witnesses have already returned to conduct their own cemetery studies.

If art transcends the endless cycle of life and death, the burden of purpose is when we attend so well to life and death that art emerges.