Tea Stories
Guests are invited to share tea and stories. SkyE will collect your stories in lyric poetry, shared back to you while sipping your tea, synthesized to be performed as an (upcycled) aria at the culmination of the time spent together. Something that has never happened before, and will never happen again. Your presence and your stories make the unique moment of art.
I am a collector of stories.
Share a story from your life
I will brew a pot of tea
inspired by your soliloquy.
Reflect your story back to you
in lyric poetry.
Sip the flavors of the narrative.
Taste and memory mingle.
Remnants poured
through my handmade table
staining the wood.
Add to all the stories
that have come before
living on in those that come after.
What Participants are Saying:
Here is a clip from an upcycled aria performed at Liz's gallery, following the collection of stories in SkyE's installation about the ocean to form a group love letter.
click^ for sound
Tea Bio
SkyE trained for a year (2001-2002) in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony while living in Hachinohe, Japan. The tea table was built by sky's hands, without any power tools, in 2010, and has been stained from a stark white wood with all the stories over the years. SkyE has highly adapted the tea ceremony by combining elements of the Chinese tea ceremony, while honoring the tenets of traditional practices, to make it accessible to modern American audiences. Calligraphy and Ikebana (flower arranging), in which sky won awards while living in Japan, have also inspired and make appearances in the installation, so participants might take ARTifacts home with them to remind them of the impermanent, inspiring moment over tea.
The tea SkyE might make from this story:
Green tea for ceremony training
Burdock root to digest the tenants
Lavender for adaptation
Hint of oolong for combining traditions
Touch of peppermint for nostalgia
Pinch of ginger, the spice of experimentation
