My passion for paper was ignited while living in Japan and Hong Kong in the late seventies to mid-eighties, where I began my Canto Series, an epic spirit play with paper and dance. My firstCanto was created in response to the Hong Kong Housing Authority bashing in my studio with sledgehammers and crowbars in 1982. I performed for Muslim women who live close to Catal Hoyuck, Turkey, the Neolithic archaeological site where evidence of worship of the feminine was found; with my handmade paper life-sized whale bones for inner city kids in Richmond, California; and at District Six in Cape Town, South Africa, a township which was bulldozed during Apartheid. In 2018, I presented my first opera which took place along sidewalks and inside narrow windows in ProArts Gallery, Oakland. The libretto consisted of the sounds paper makes when it tears, rips, crumbles, along with words sung from my sumi brush paintings window installation. I am have recently created my XXVIII Canto. I am a member of Terry Sendgraff’s Improvisation Performance Group.
Please visit my website: www.dianamarto.com
To learn more about my work please visit my website.
View excerpts from the Alcatraz performance, Dying Seal and Sacred Texts.
Read interview: Performance Artist Diana Marto Taps into the Power of Paper, Marin Independent Journal, Feb. 7, 2013.