Conceived and directed by Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist duo, and Chelsea Factory Resident Artist duo Ximena Garnica & Shige Moriya of LEIMAY, Extinction Rituals is inspired by acts of remembrance celebrating the life and loss of animals, plants and environments from the places they call home—Japan, Colombia, and NY.
Extinction Rituals is an ever-evolving project, with various manifestations incorporating movement, song, spoken word, music, and visual storytelling to create short rituals honoring extinct species.
This December at Chelsea Factory, Extinction Rituals – Video Installation will offer a meditative exploration of enigmatic landscapes, ranging from Colombia’s Gorgona Island to Japan’s frozen Akan Lake. It will also feature communities from the Colombian Pacific coast, portrayed by LEIMAY dancers providing intentional offerings to those species who have ceased to exist.
Acclaimed composer and instrumentalist Kaoru Watanabe; five-time Emmy award-winning composer Jeff Beal; vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Anaïs Maviel; composer, improviser, multi-instrumentalist Huda Asfour; gugak master and multi-instrumentalist gamin; and improviser Naoki Iwakawa will be improvising live at the event.
Kaoru Watanabe – Acclaimed composer and instrumentalist Kaoru Watanabe’s work is grounded in traditional Japanese music while imbued with contemporary jazz, improvisation, and experimental music elements. His signature skill of infusing Japanese culture with disparate styles has made him a much-in-demand collaborator working with such iconic artists as Wes Anderson, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Laurie Anderson, Jason Moran, Yo-Yo Ma, Japanese National Living Treasure Bando Tamasaburo, Silkroad Ensemble, and Rhiannon Giddens. A trained jazz musician, he lived in Japan for a decade to connect with his heritage. While there, he became the first American to become a performer and Artistic Director of the iconic taiko drumming ensemble Kodo
Jeff Beal is an American composer with a genre-defying musical fluidity. His work has been nominated for nineteen, and won five Primetime Emmy awards. Beal composes, orchestrates, conducts, mixes and often performs on his own scores. An accomplished and recorded jazz musician, Beal uses his improvisational skills to read the emotional tone of a scene. “This process allows me to envision a world where anything can happen,” says Beal.
Anaïs Maviel’s work as a vocalist, composer, percussionist and artistic director focuses on the function of art to address Relation. With sound, she intends to lay common grounds for utopian futures. Connecting intimacy and subconscious narratives with collective and large-scale principles, Anaïs navigates song, choral, instrumental music and staging with a strong connection to cosmologies of sound and speech rooted in oral traditions such as mantra and ring shout.
With traditional and experimental approaches, she investigates the power of sound to shape reality. Anaïs cares for the stakes of hybridity in culture, working towards opening up the interstices between genres, for a multiple, inclusive-yet-sacred experience of music.
Huda Asfour, a musician and biomedical engineer, transcends boundaries in her work. Her musical journey began at the age of 13th, in conservatories in Tunisia and Palestine, culminating in collaborations worldwide. Her albums, “Mars… Back and Forth” and “Kouni,” defy genre and explore identity. She also fosters improvisation in Arabic music aesthetics and conducts workshops globally. Huda combines music and engineering with 10+ years of research experience and is a prolific academic writer. Explore her work at hudaasfour.com
gamin is a Korean born multi-instrumentalist specialized for traditional Korean wind. She tours the world performing both traditional Korean music and cross-disciplinary collaborations. She is a scholar and designated Yisuja, official holder of Korea’s Important Intangible Cultural Asset No. 46. Piri court music and Daechita(royal military music).
Naoki Iwakawa is a musician, visual artist, and creator of unique action-painting performances that produce expressive, large-scale works. In his work, Iwakawa brings to fruition a rare sensibility capable of merging the chaotic and Dionysian quality of experience with the meditative quality of action. Born in Osaka, Japan, he moved to the States in 1991. In 1996 together with Shige Moriya and Grande, he started CAVE Gallery in the current space known as CAVE where he lived and worked for many years.
Naoki is drawn to the relationship between music and visual art. He collaborated for many years with Tim Wright, of the band DNA.
They will be performing at the following dates and times:
Kaoru Watanabe: December 7th, 8 pm (Thursday)
Jeff Beal: December 8th, 5 pm (Friday)
Anaïs Maviel: December 8th, 6 pm (Friday)
Huda Asfour: December 9th, 6 pm (Saturday)
gamin: December 9th, 8 pm (Saturday)
Naoki Iwakawa: December 10th, 5pm (Sunday)
The installation will be accompanied by 2 movement-based workshops on Saturday, December 9 and Sunday, December 10 at 10:00am. For tickets, click here.
This presentation is part of Ximena and Shige’s residency at Chelsea Factory.
In Person Event
Event Dates Range
Event Dates
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- December 7, 2023 5:00 pm
- December 7, 2023
- - 9:40pm Thursday (Kaoru Watanabe @8pm)
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- December 8, 2023 3:00 pm
- December 8, 2023
- - 5:40pm Friday (Jeff Beal @5pm) (Anaïs Maviel @6pm) Party!
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- December 8, 2023 3:00 pm
- December 9, 2023
- 1:00pm - 8:40pm Saturday (Huda Asfour @6pm)
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- December 8, 2023 5:00 pm
- December 10, 2023
- 1:00pm - 5:40pm Sunday (Naoki Iwakawa @5pm)
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Chelsea Factory
547 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10001
Ticket Pricing: ($0-$25* Pay What You Can)
*The installation will restart at the top of each hour and run for 45 minutes approximately
*Please note: Floor pillows and seats will be available to sit and experience the installation. To access the seating area, audiences will be asked to take off their shoes, with the option to wear provided booties.
