Genmasa
On a bus to Tokyo before Christmas 2002, I met Genmasa. We had breakfast and discovered she lived only 20 minutes from me in the same god-awful MountainMouth. She was adorable, artistic and possibly completely mad. Then she called about 20 times on New Year’s Day. I blocked her number, sent a pompous explanation that I was gay and feared she wanted more, and discovered I had misunderstood almost everything. It was a disastrous foundation for what quickly became an ideal friendship. Meet the woman I initially blocked →
Before returning to Yamaguchi, Genmasa had modelled in Tokyo and edited art books in Kyoto and Osaka. In a town where my artistic life mostly happened inside my own head, she became translator, PA, co-conspirator and audience. She helped with the venue, flyers and Japanese material for KISS :: Hiroshima 2003, then bought a kimono especially for the performance. I brought the boundary-dissolving theory; she helped it survive contact with an actual Japanese audience. She also lent me her credit card, on which I borrowed “like thousands of pounds”. Most importantly, she christened me Joa at Christmas. The debt was eventually paid. The name proved harder to get rid of. See the KISS performance succeed → Inspect the kimono, kiss and credit arrangement →
Away from projects, we ate pancakes, shared a platonic bed and talked for hours about art, depression, gender, cannabis and JT LeRoy. I introduced her to Kenji, producing a complicated love story involving his car, her live-in boyfriend, alleged lies and repeated cries of “Joa, Joa”. Genmasa could drive me wild with frustration and reduce me to tears with affection, sometimes during the same week. Read the complicated love story →
By 2004 Genmasa was seriously ill and I saw much less of her. When she finally came round with her boyfriend, we sat outside my apartment in the sun eating avocado salad and chocolate biscuits. I called her Evil GM and wanted us to be crazy together again. Months later, hugging a tiny dream-version of JT LeRoy felt exactly like embracing Genmasa. MountainMouth remained god-awful, but after Genmasa it was god-awful with flyers, borrowed money, art plans and the site of the Joa & Genmasa show. Read the Evil GM get-well post → Sit outside the apartment →