Henna battle
Your skin is my canvas
First detailed drawings
Then you wipe it away
From soft to hard
At first henna is as soft as cream
Then it becomes granular
It dries in emotion
All are actions which leave something behind
Drawing in the space
And on each other's skin
Printing the body on the space

Silent water, everything has a reason
What I write on your back
Let's leave that till the end
When you move your back, the henna reacts
If you want it to remain you must keep still
Keep still while it dries, otherwise it will crumble and fall off
The grain falls, the print remains

That is the effect of henna
I don't want it to stop
I can not give a time limit
You leave it for what it is
At most you direct the process
As far as I'm concerned it is unending
The impermanence of things is out of my hands
The longer we don't occupy ourselves with domestic chores but live in the here and now, the longer this moment shall last


Performance: Dirk Jan Jager and Sophia van der Putten

Photos: Thomas Lenden

Nieuw en Meer, 1 October 2016