With: Don KENNY, Katherine ANASTASIA, EDA Kazuo
Producers: Gary HILL, Katherine ANASTASIA

In a masterful cross-cultural synthesis, “URA ARU ” conforms palindromic wordplay (words or phrases reading the same backward and forwards) to the underlying structure of Japanese Noh drama. Noh is a drama of essential dualities－characteristically, two principles enact connections between mortal deeds and otherworldly consequences in mythic narratives that unfold in two scenes. In a series of compounded dualities mimetic of Noh, HILL composes evocative acoustic palindromes by reversing Japanese words: “hara/arah” binds belly to heart, “asu/usa” couples tomorrow with melancholy, and “ema/ame” makes an offering to rain. English counterparts like “live/evil” Anglicize the dynamic. HILL reverses words to release their doubles, and in an evocative sequence of these mirrored pairs, “URA ARU ” envisions this process as a ritual renewal of counterpart realms.

“URA ARU (the backside exists)” 1985–86