Chills on the Rooftop: A Winter Ghost Screening

João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva, Peacock (nue)

Dear Beasts of every land and clime,

For the auspicious occasion of João Maria Gusmão's exhibition Animal Farm (extended until 10 March), we summon you to Chills on the Rooftop: a Winter Ghost Screening, featuring Peacock (nue) from 2016, a film by João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva – on this special day, reeled on a limited edition film spool designed by JMG.

Peacock (nue) is a motion picture portrayal of a Japanese Noh play. Produced in Kyoto, Japan, the film bears witness to a collaboration between JMG+PP and a Noh theatre company. Within the halls of Noh theatre, a liminal threshold emerges from the eerie ghost masks and faint chanting of ancestral storytelling. The stage becomes a portal to realms beyond mortal comprehension. 

Through the lens of the camera, we embark on a journey that defies the constraints of conventional documentary, crossing the boundary between reality and the supernatural enshrined within Noh tradition. The fourth wall, once sacrosanct, now crumbles as the camera's gaze walks on stage, revealing the interplay between the tangible and the otherworldly.

The filmed play recounts the story of Nue, a monster mash up of a monkey’s head, tiger paws and a snake’s tail in a raccoon's body, who was haunting the emperor's palace and who was slain – shot dead by an arrow – by Minamoto no Yoshiie. In the play, the “ghost of Nue” makes a grim entrance, surprising a travelling monk sleeping on a temple by the Yodo river in the Settsu Province. “Boo!” he cries, as he entertains the young apprentice, enlightening him with sounds and gestures about his own agonising death at the hands of the famous samurai hero. Grim stuff. Then he vanishes. The following day, not the ghost but the “spirit of the ghost of Nue” comes forth. “BOOOOO!” he shrieks. A fiendish metamorphosis occurs between the two spectres. In a bewildering supplementary costume and spite, the spirit of the ghost shows its true unreality. Once again, it reenacts the events that led to its own demise, this time lavishly, dying on stage for the second time and awakening to the spirit world. The play thus narrates a tautological journey into the underworld of the underworld; realms within death, within death, within death; and the unattainable experience of it all.

From 8:30 to 10 pm, Wednesday 21st February on the rooftop of 99 Canal.
Wrap up warm, bring booze.

ABOUT 99 CANAL

99 Canal is a non-profit artist-run initiative, that aims to preserve the artistic exchange of ideas, opinions, and perspectives in Chinatown, New York City. While providing work studio spaces and residencies to both local

and International artists, it also runs a public program focused on performance and experimental media, which provides a platform to the expanded downtown artist community to propose new ideas and exhibit critical work. For more information about the program please address to 99canalstreet@gmail.com