Mya Kough
Peace. The color blue. The ocean. The sky. Breath. Movement. Music.
Looking to the sky I can breathe and so I use blue to show all the breath, all the air, all calmness, and stillness. I use this word in my work through the blue sky, through the movement of a dancer emanating a feeling that can’t always be expressed with words. There is no pressure. There is music, lots of music.
War. 3 deployments. The color red. Guns. Overthinking. Holding in breath.
War is something maybe not first recognizable, but overseas we fight daily and all around us wars are fought internally. I use dancers linked together to show the efforts of our struggle, the efforts of bodies on the battlefield leaning on each other, physically present while emotionally so far away. The paint represents the work they have done, the work left behind, and the work that will forever remain in their minds.
I am exploring how to give these words movement. Together they form a space in between where they begin to move not alone but together, reacting and bleeding into each other. I can see where that line blurs: what is war without peace? What is peace without war? This is the in between.
I am finding depth and movement in these questions asked.
What is peace?
What is war?
What is peace without war?
What is war without peace?
Moving differently but together.
Overseas
03:57
Single channel installation
Post War State of His Mind
3’ x 8’
House paint on gator board
peacewar/warpeace
01:00 (loop)
Single channel installation
Post War State of Her Mind
3’ x 8’
House paint on gator board
Blue
01:16
Single channel installation
BIO
Mya Kough is a Los Angeles based artist, born and raised in a little red house in Southern California. She started dancing and making art at a young age, learning from her mother, aunts, and grandmother. Movement is an integral part of Mya’s practice; she has performed, choreographed, designed, and directed Dance in Flight, the Pepperdine’s dance company. Mya continues to use a variety of media including painting, dance, and video, exploring how the concepts of peace and war affect society. She is influenced by her experience in a military family; specifically, she examines how her father’s deployments have affected her.