Mai Ueda Tea Ceremonies



Mai Ueda, Tea Ceremony as Pandas, performed on April 6th and 7th 2012,
P3 Studios at Cosmopolitan, Installation and Performance


Mai Ueda:
Experimental Tea Ceremonies

Performed at the P3 Studios in the Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas.

Tea Ceremony as Pandas April 6th and 7th 2012

Tea Ceremony in the Parallel Universe April 13th and 14th 2012

Tea Ceremony on the Moon April 20th and 21st 2012

Suprise Tea Ceremony April 27th and 28th 2012



For almost the entire month of April, Mai Ueda has had her artist residency at the P3 studios at the Cosmopolitan hotel and casino. Up on the third floor, it's among the restaurant row. She started her stay with her Tea Ceremony as Pandas, in which the rsvp'd guests were dressed in panda suits, sitting on the ground on alligator seating pads. The second weekend was the Tea Ceremony in a Parallel Universe, that's the one that I went to.
Mai Ueda, entered in a silk, cream colored floral kimono with the traditional bow. She had all of the equipment to mix her own macha green tea. The guests, myself included, had to be adorned with this silver wrapping paper that was reminiscent of the silver cellophane of candy wrappers. Yasmina had her as a sash, one girl had it wrapped around her head with long antennae-like feelers, the girl that was right next to me had hers around her head from under her chin up to a crude bow on the top of her head, and last mine was a mask, it was wrapped around my face with two holes cut for my eyes. Mai said that the reason for this was for us to leave behind who we were and take on something different from ourselves so we could truly enter the parallel universe. A live video recording of the performance was being taken and projected onto two hexagonal mirrors on the floor. The video feed was reflected by the mirrors onto a third mirror on the wall, it created this other worldly experience, obscuring what was seen of the images being taken. Mai went through the traditional motions of creating her macha green tea, she would make it take a drink and then pass it down the line to be shared by all. We were given little crystalline candies to offset the bitterness of the green tea.

The thing, for me, that best conveyed the sense of being in a parallel universe, was the noise from the outer casino world. It was a Saturday night, everyone walking by was dressed in their club going garb and the air was filled with excited buzz of getting intoxicated. The Tea Ceremony did not try to fight the noise, but the longer I watched the more I got lost in the silence of the event. There were two worlds co-existing, at times aware of the other and others completely self absorbed. It was almost meditative, it was an oasis within the chaotic environment of the Cosmopolitan. It was only after the performance that I truly became aware of the other world again, when a large group of inebriated people very insistently wanted to come in and try on the panda suits that were on display. The world became one again, with all of its noise and annoyances.

This upcoming weekend, Mai Ueda will be doing her last Tea Ceremony, the only information given about it is that it is a suprise. She has create something that is a secret, within a city that normally broadcasts every event so loudly, in turn she has made for a very special and very intimate occurence. Mai Ueda has combated the noise and flamboyance of Las Vegas with inner meditation, she is inviting others to escape with her, in the traditional way of a tea ceremony.

To

 watch The Tea Ceremony as Pandas click here.