FUSE#1

Scope #1
Should I kill
myself or have a
cup of coffee?:
A co-choreographer’s work-in-progress reflection by Chiew Peishan
The conceptualization of our creation began in October
2017, and the first phase of exploration spanned from
mid-January to mid-May 2018. The next phase of
exploration will begin from end-June 2018 till the
performance of the work in the DiverCity platform of M1
CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival on 19 and 20
July 2018. We intend to continue to develop the work.
A common interest in the philosophy of the Absurd by Albert Camus motivated this
co-creation with Liu.
Should I kill myself or have a cup of coffee? is a personal musing
on the absurdity of living.. It is co-choreographed and performed
by Wen-Chun Liu and I, in collaboration with film artist Yan-Hong
Chen, dramaturge Kim Seng Neo, and performers Kenneth Tan
and Supatchai Lappakornkul.
“A stranger to myself and to the world, armed solely with
a thought that negates itself as soon as it asserts, what is
this condition in which I can have peace only by refusing to
know and to live, in which the appetite for conquest
bumps into walls that defy its assaults? To will is to stir up
paradoxes” (Camus 20).
Still from film by Yan-Hong Chen
In Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus, he presented a
philosophy that challenged itself, and posited that a
disharmony exists between one’s innate impulse to search
for meaning and the meaninglessness of life. If the option
of suicide that escape existence is not taken up in
response to the absurdity of life, then one will turn to
acknowledge and embrace the absurd so as to find worth
in living.
Prior to Should I kill myself or have a cup of coffee?, both
Liu and I shared choreographic responses that drew
influences from the Absurd. We had explored within
different contexts and presented work-in-progress
creations on separate platforms. Liu’s An Absurd
Reasoning explored the futile routine and absurd
encounters in daily life, and was presented as part of
International Choreographers Residency Programme
Concert in American Dance Festival 2017.
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