Oyama says of this project, that “the performance of Encapsulation Suits made me aware of many past and current personal issues and matters in my life that I had paid little attention to. After the self-learning process, I became even more curious to find out what else these objects knew about me. I then came across the concept of psychodrama.”

WHAT IS PSYCHODRAMA?

Psychodrama is also known as family constellation. It is a form of psychotherapy in which a group of unknown, non-professional actors called ‘protagonists’ engages in an improvised acting-out of specific situations. A ‘director’ facilitates the session. Someone else acts the role of a ‘client’ who is called the ‘stand-in.’ Each player receives her/his role and develops a role-play based on the story that the ‘client’ proposes about her/his concerns. The striking element of this approach lies in the enabling of the client to see her/his life objectively through being re-enacted by other people.

For this project, Oyama worked with Malwina Durkalec, a professional psychodrama leader, who understood the artist’s intentions and was open enough to agree to conduct a psychodrama with her sculptures. They filmed the piece without a rehearsal. Oyama used the film solely for documentary purposes. Everything was improvised, and the artist had no control over the consequences.