Presenter Spotlight: hua hua (& performance wrap up)
hua hua visited Daruma in late June for a full weekend of workshops, and a Friday night performance on the summer solstice kicked things off: with a crowd ringing the studio space, hua hua and her model Ben offered an improvisational performance.
What sticks with me even now: the sense of eventful presence and immediacy that grew from hua hua’s total attention to her model. The simplicity and effectiveness of tying in a 3D approach: how it activated the whole of the performance space—from one hashira, to the other, to the bamboo overhead. Her patient focus, offering a single gesture or tie, and waiting for her partner’s reaction to fully bloom, before deciding where to go next.
In a conversation after her Daruma weekend, I had the chance to learn more deeply about hua hua’s performance and teaching work across film, music videos, installations, classes and more. Drawing inspiration from sources ranging from Kinoko’s web ties, to patterns of the natural world, to kung-fu and spaghetti Western fight scenes, hua hua also reflected on approaching Shibari not in an effort “to reach an ideal form or state,” but rather with appreciation of “all the shared moments in the process - to see the magic it creates between two people.” Her performance was a perfect illustration of just that.
Read on for performance photos—and a deeper dive with Daruma’s most recent presenter.
Photography by Harmony Shields
How do you describe your journey into rope?
My journey into rope started much further back than my first interaction with Shibari. Throughout my childhood and teen years I was actively exploring sadomasochism and dreamed of being an artist. I explored many mediums, but couldn’t find the best way to communicate my ideas. My sexuality and body were always central to my work, relationships and identity, so when I found Shibari, it just seemed to make sense of all the different aspects of who I am. I no longer felt the need to search far and wide, but rather a single cave to endlessly dig deeper into.
You work across multiple media—teaching, live performance, film, music videos, installations and more. How does your practice change depending on the medium?
Shibari is always different depending on the context where it is practiced. When I tie in a class, on a stage, or in front of the camera, I accept that the environment will always affect my rope and the model’s expression. As I was already exploring film and performance before I discovered Shibari, whenever I tie in front of an audience I want to be attentive to the viewer's experience. So, naturally the positions, use of proximity and even how I move my arms is adapted to give the audience a satisfying view. Besides the physical differences, the energy of the people in the room will also influence how we behave. As I work mostly with video nowadays, I have also noticed my practice has changed due to having so much documentation of my work. This gives me the opportunity to study myself, reflect on sessions and see myself and my relationship to my models from the outside.
On your platform, Borderline, you write about how outdated gender roles or visions of sexuality can make it difficult for people to access what’s beautiful about Shibari. What messages are you aiming to convey, challenge, or re-frame in your performances and films?
The biggest issue I had with Shibari when I began practicing was that I found the content out there on the internet lacked the beauty that exists in the lived experience of it. There seemed to be a huge disparity between how Shibari felt to me and how it was presented to the public. Borderline is always evolving, as I continue to grow and change. At present, I am mostly interested in using my platform to reframe the mindset of Shibari as an attempt to reach an ideal form or state, to a greater appreciation of all the shared moments in the process - to see the magic it creates between two people.
I was sorry to see that you recently lost your Youtube, when it was taken down on the grounds of sexual content. Unfortunately, this deletion is happening all too often to shibari artists, as well as other kink practitioners, teachers, and sex workers—what effect do you think this kind of platform censorship has on kink community and education?
Online censorship has changed the way people are introduced to the world of Shibari, as now it can be harder to present the erotic or nudity. I find that Instagram in particular, has done a great deal to sanitize the culture. Not only are practitioners forced to self-censor in order to remain relevant in the public eye, but ultimately what I am most concerned about is that it is erasing history. Young people entering the scene nowadays are often unaware of its erotic origins. Then again, it simply brings the question of whether or not subcultures should rely on mainstream platforms at all. Nonetheless censorship has always existed, finding ways to circumvent the censors can be a new opportunity for creativity and solidarity.
photography by Taste of Taboo
One of your most distinctive uses of space is what you call “web” shibari. How do you define this, and how did you develop this practice? (If you like, feel free to speak to your inspirations; what you’ve discovered through these explorations; how being in this type of tie is different for your partner, etc)
I first came across Web Shibari when learning from Kinoko Hajime. Kinoko-sensei’s approach to Web Shibari had a big influence on me and all of my base knowledge of how to build 3D structures came from him. What attracted me to his Web Shibari was that it offered an opportunity to enjoy tying spaces rather than just tying people. Over time I began to discover my own delights in tying webs rather than just the visual impact.
Firstly, I see webs as a study of nature, in order to create something seemingly chaotic it's important to look into the shapes and patterns that appear outside of human design - vines, broken glass and of course spider webs. Secondly, when working with 3D, one must pay attention to the whole space from different perspectives—this helps me to understand more about finding a harmonious balance in the overall composition. And lastly, the experience for the model being suspended in a web or 3D structure is very different to a typical single point or bamboo suspension.
Web Shibari can offer an unpredictability, tormenting the model with force from all directions and overwhelming them with the sheer mass of rope on and around their body. It can also provide a weightlessness, a gentle ease as if floating in the air, as a web can distribute the weight of the whole body. With these different effects I mostly like to to explore webs in three circumstances: installation art, Semenawa (torture rope) and soft suspension.
Your teaching and performance practice has taken you to cities across the Americas, Europe and Asia—in your travels, what do you observe about how rope studios, scenes, education are now evolving differently in different parts of the world?
I love to explore how Shibari is practiced in different cultures. It never fails to amaze me to see how much we can have in common through our shared passion despite being worlds apart. Every place is unique in their approach to teaching Shibari, due to cultural, economical and political circumstances, so it can be hard to generalize on the differences. However, one thing that unites the community worldwide is the impact of the pandemic. The pandemic was a catalyst for virtual living. This allowed for greater connection of the international community but also created tension between the ‘old-school’ ways of local scenes, who mostly learnt Shibari in private peer-to-peer environments, and the newer approach from those that learn Shibari online and often from presenters abroad.
One last one: What’s influencing your tying practice right now—or what are you artistically excited about?
Besides Shibari, cinema is one of my greatest passions, that is why I hold a monthly movie night for my Patreon community. Recently, Spaghetti Westerns and old Kung Fu movies are on my mind. I am very inspired by the tension and choreography of the fight scenes and how to implement similar techniques in my sessions.