TEA SHACK
Tea Shack
A site-specific extension of the Japanese tea ceremony in Provincetown, MA.
A one-day performance by smudge
August 18, 002008
10 a.m. – noon, 1 p.m. –4 p.m.
Location: Art By the Sea – a project of Campus Provincetown - Trap Shed #1, MacMillan Pier
A site-specific extension of the Japanese tea ceremony was offered to 40 members of the public in Provincetown, MA. smudge studio performed a modified version of the traditional tea ceremony, adapted to the landscape and culture of Provincetown.
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Welcome to Tea Shack. We invite you to experience a “smudging together” of tastes, smells, sights, sounds, gestures, and spirits of Japanese teahouses, the Japanese tea ceremony, the Provincetown artist dune shacks, and the MacMillian Wharf.
We welcome you to enter the Tea Shack and experience a version of the Japanese tea ceremony that responds to Provincetown as a place and as a way of life. Tea Shack extends into Provincetown both an ancient tradition from a far distant and different culture, and the spirit and rhythm of Provincetown’s nearby but remote artist dune shacks.
The experience takes 20 minutes and is offered to four people at a time. There is a sign-up sheet outside of the Tea Shack.
Smudge artists Jamie Kruse and Elizabeth Ellsworth will assist you in making traditional matcha green tea. Frank Vaseallo of Relish, Provincetown has created Tea Sweets for the performance. Tom Rodgers of Provincetown’s WA has provided aesthetic elements for the Tea Shack performance space. Sylvie Richard of The Outer Crepe has provided the vessels for hot tea water.
Tea Shack offers you an environment within which you can simply enjoy the drinking of tea as experience.
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SPECIAL THANKS TO: Frank Vaseallo of Relish, Tom Rodgers of WA, Sylvie Richard of The Outer Crepe and Provincetown Tourism Director Lisa Bowden!
review posted in local newspaper, The Banner
Project Statement
In 002006, smudge (Jamie Kruse and Elizabeth Ellsworth) resided for two weeks at the C-Scape dune shack. Part of their daily practice during the residency was to drink Japanese green tea while experiencing the sunrise. Since then, and in part because of what they experienced in the dunes, they have studied the Japanese tea ceremony and traveled to Japan. They sensed resonances between the spirit of the ceremony—especially the tearooms constructed to house it—and the spirit of the Provincelands dune shacks. Each tries to create a context for experiencing elements that they sense are at the heart of the Japanese tea ceremony: the necessity for humans to pause, meet in the present, and share aesthetic experience—even as continuous change inevitably unfolds “outside the teahouse door.”
Tea Shack intends to extend into Provincetown both an ancient tradition from a far distant and different culture, and the spirit and rhythm of the nearby but remote dune shacks. Doing so, smudge hopes to create a context for pausing, meeting, exchanging, and sensing ... and one that invites participants to sense deep resonances between the spirits of the Provincelands dune shacks and the spirit of the Japanese tea house.
Art by the Sea is an educational project sponsored by Campus Provincetown and supported by Lisa Bowden. The project features artisans demonstrating their craft and visitor information about our galleries, studios and cultural venues. Provincetown is America’s oldest, continuous art colony.
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C-Scape dune shack, 002006
