Ringing the Temple Bell is a performance, a workshop, a lecture series and a manifesto. The title describes a transcendent moment– the sensation of a reverberation inside your chest.

It is a three-day event first performed at Queer New York International Arts Festival in 2013. The three days reflect the cycle of creation – conception, formalization and ritualization. Its power lies in its uncategorizable nature. The three days would include the building of an earthen bread oven/kiln from local clay, lectures and a processional puppet show and feast. On a small scale I hope the piece could point to new teaching models and give participants insight into fresh ways of encountering art. Ringing the Temple Bell is designed with a basic structure and “script” but would accommodate the materials, grains and folklore of any given site. The goal is to create an experience that would transmit from individuals into the larger art world. Can such a small act transform existing institutions? Can art be transformative or is it simply a commodity? How can we break the chains of inherited categories of art making and its reception? The vibrations of the temple bell reverberate into the wider world. Ringing the Temple Bell is in-progress and open to other venues to be performed.

Ringing the Temple Bell was generously supported by an Artist Opportunity grant from Oregon Arts Commission, an Art Matters grant and the Ford Family Foundation.