Performance art means myriad different things to different people and comes in multiple forms. And it’s now more than 100 years ago that the legendary Cabaret Voltaire was founded – an offshoot of Zurich’s Dada art movement, which comprised performances of poetry, costume, avant-garde music, painting, and more. Something of the same appeared in Japan’s Gutai Association in the 1950s, which staged a mix of theatre, visual art, and philosophy in large multifaceted exhibitions. Most famously in Japan, in 1964’s Cut Piece, Yoko Ono invited audience members to walk on stage and cut away her clothing with a pair of scissors. It accentuated the sense of voyeurism in art and became a strong feminist statement about the dangers of objectification. Two years later, Yayoi Kusama walked the streets of Manhattan in a traditional Japanese kimono with a parasol that was documented in Walking Piece.

Now, more than 50 years later, Japanese artist Miwa Komatsu comes to Hong Kong - as part of her ongoing exhibition at Whitestone Gallery - at the city’s new vertical art tower, H Queens, and its street level Hart Hall pop-up space, to perform a work. But Komatsu takes the ‘Zen-est’ possible approach to her work. She meditates for one hour, before creating a painting in front of an audience. "I meditate and I will pray so I will see something in my mind's eye and then portray what I see,"  she says. Komatsu paints barefoot, and wears a plain white artist’s smock which in turn becomes something of an artwork in itself. She's currently collaborating with a Japanese designer who will use her prints to make clothes from. "It will be very avant-garde," she says. While Komatsu's performance doesn't embody the voyeurism of Ono, or the faux-exhibitionism of catwalking Kusama, it’s a form of showbusiness on the well-being level, a sort of Picasso meets popular culture meets contemporary mindfulness movement. It's all part of her mantra "to bring art and the people closer together," as she feels young Japanese have become too materialistic and are turning away from art. 

Nagano-born Miwa Komatsu grew up in the countryside. She’s inspired by indigenous nature and wherever she happens to be at, and in, the moment. Her work centres entirely on personal themes like the universe, god, equality and perspectives on life and death. She studied at Joshibi College of Art and Design in Tokyo and started out as a photographer staging tiny exhibitions in Japan before finding the confidence to paint what she saw in her head. And the results and success followed with numerous accolades. In 2015, the British Museum acquired her Arita-porcelain guardian dog. Komatsu has been active internationally supplying work to New York’s World Trade Centre, to the movie Hanaikusa in Japan, and mobile video game Terra Battle 2. The latter is a game developed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy, for which Komatsu drew two guardians, Ajishi and Unjishi. She’s now even leveraging her new-found fame by appearing in television commercials for Sony’s smartphone, Xperia, which started in Tokyo last month. She’s a Vogue magazine darling, except for one rather important detail. She doesn’t follow brands and doesn’t read any fashion magazines at all. "I don't follow brands or buy them for the name. I just buy the clothes I like." 

Go see the dynamic Komatsu in action this Sunday (March 25) at 3pm. Hart Hall, 80 Queens Road Central. 

Image: Courtesy of Whitestone Gallery