2001
I lived in Japan to study their culture of public bathing. With permission to cast some unused bathtubs outside of the local plumbing shop in traditional Japanese washi paper and rice glue, I cleaned and cast the tubs in the evening. I learned about the coming Bon-Odori festival, where dead spirits visit. The whole community comes out to dance and make music, and the bus stand area is cleared and hung with paper lanterns. The local sento or public bath is also used by the community as a dedicated space and time for collective play. The intent of the installation on the evening of Kita Kogane`s Bon Odori was to draw attention to the sento, and the parallel between it and the ongoing festival. Dry Bath was an evening walk from Kita Kogane Station to Kogane Yu. Seven washi paper bathtubs marked the way, lit by candles like old paper lanterns shedding collective skins. Each tub was cast from with two layers of paper sandwiching a different material related to impressions of local textures (like seaweed, flower petals, packing foam). At the end of the party all was taken away with the trash.
