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Tea Service: Needle Eye

by S. Hollis Mickey

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1.
the needle threads the eye with a loop time pulls through quickening the needle is sharp and sweet and perfectly pointed the needle threads the eye with a loop time pulls through the eye is open waking or not waking from a dream of being some other part and not a lonely eye the needle is sharp and sweet and perfectly sews the eye and time together into this moment where I am now and you you are the eye are you not The time has come for you to take a sip of your tea if you have not. You might close both your eyes so that you might use all your other senses. Notice the feel, the sound, the scent, the flavor as you sip. Without the eye what does the tea become as it becomes a part of you as you drink it into you? the eye is open waking or not waking it may be dark or dawn but the adumbration does not matter the eye is open taking in the light into the eye eyeing the world threaded through time the loop of the red thread sews together the opening and closing of one moment into the next the duration of being an eye The time now for another sip or two. Eyes open or closed. Your body being a body. Your eyes being eyes. The cup being warm. The tea being tea. You may feel the warmth of the present wash over your body being a body your eye being an eye. You may feel the warm present of now wash into the warm present of next and next. Moment after moment. The tea as a thread to pull you through each loop. where the eye is is now or here eyeing the world as it becomes always and already again as the needle pulls time through a part of the body and its own organ the eye sees itself through the red thread of time and you you are the eye are you not you see yourself in this moment alone and a part of a whole world Breathe a little deeper still into the time into the body exhale past and future at once you might eat now if you have not already or if you want to, not because I say, because you are the eye are you not? eyes open or closed you are eating the needles of wild northern spruce sprouted in spring a brilliant chartreuse adumbrate of growth which darkens and hardens into branches each year these spruce needle tips tip out again sharp and sweet and perfectly pointed for becoming for becoming more and more tree. How is your tea? As you eat these spruce needles and sip your tea how are you presently becoming what growth is growing sharp and sweet and perfectly the thread pulls through time after time the wondrous seeing of just right now as the past is sewn into future the eye eyes itself as a part of this embroidery piercing and yet also soft as only the persistent present can be one moment into the next the needle threads the eye with a loop time pulls through quickening and yet at exactly at the same measure as seeing up down up down of the needle light and red and sweet Breathe a little deeper still still still drink the rest of your tea. another sip or another however many sips to get to the bottom of your cup drink at the measure of seeing lifting the cup down up up down light and sweet. And when you have the tea contained within you eye the bottom of the cup turn it out onto a plate or bowl. Eye the tea leaves. What shape do you see What pulls through in this moment Is it a boat? A vessel to carry you from past into future? Is it a flame to burn what is no longer needed into what may become? Is it a tree with roots that reach into the pressed decay of years before to reach up to light of years to come? Is it an eye to see, to see the eye itself. To see yourself, because you are the eye are you not? Whatever you see or do not see? What can you make of this moment to lift you into the next light and sharp and perfectly sweet? the eye is open waking or not waking from a dream of being some other part and not a lonely eye The eye is where the eye is which is here now in this moment still as the moment passes pulls through into the next red thread looping infinite loops to sew past and future together not a lonely eye but a part of a whole body a whole world of being here and now

about

With the down up, down up of the needle, a red thread pulls past into future as the present.

The piece was created as part of the School of Nonfunctional Studies 1:1 Tea Service Program. The piece was created specifically for a sole audience member and performed live for that individual over Zoom. The audience also received a specialized tea blend and tea cake for consuming while watching.


More about Tea Service 1:1

1:1 Tea Service is a ritual and a performance experience created for one person. Tea is offered to the audience member both as a healing balm and as a tool for fortune telling. The 1:1 Service, lasting 30-45 minutes, sets forth actions and gestures designed to mend what is torn and ease what might be tender, and nourish. Through meditative audio and invocation, the performer invites the audience member to reflect on an important question in their own lives and, with the performer, divine a response. Each performance is unique and created through a brief advance exchange with the audience member. The result is an intimate, immersive 1:1 Service of sound, food and beverage, performance, and divination.

More information at nonfunctionalstudies.org

credits

released September 3, 2021

Special thanks to Mahavir, who was this work's muse. Gratitude also to Simonetta Mignano + Alice Mazarella, cofounders of the School of Nonfunctional Studies with S Hollis Mickey.

Depthless appreciation for the care-filled recording, mixing, and attention of DBP without whom this work would be entirely ephemeral.

Recording and mixing by David Barth Penn

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all rights reserved

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about

S. Hollis Mickey Anchorage, Alaska

S. Hollis Mickey is an interdisciplinary artist working in text, textiles, sculpture, performance, and installation.

As a disabled artist, her work is created through the embodied experience of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.

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