METAPLASIA - A Contemporary Performance of Butoh and Paint

METAPLASIA is a collaboration between Corin Wiggins and Michael Krajewski, professional artists raised, trained, and active in Columbia, SC. The performance is significant in multiple capacities: it is a true merger of the visual and performing arts; it is Wiggins’ homecoming performance after ten years away from Columbia; and it is, based on our research, the first professional butoh performance in the history of South Carolina.

Butoh (舞踏) is a form of avant-garde dance theatre created in post-WWII Japan by Tatsumi Hijikata. It is a fully embodied practice which utilizes the human body as a universal material capable of becoming anything through the imagination. Drawing from acting, dance, and performance art, butoh is described as transformational, spiritual, and profoundly intense.

In keeping with butoh tradition, Corin will perform covered head to toe in white paint. The performance will occur on top of a large black canvas, where all of Corin’s choreography will streak, strike, and splatter into a visual expression of physical movement. At some point, Krajewski will hoist the canvas up and finish the painting there and then. Upon completion of the performance, the painting will be auctioned off to the audience.

Metaplasia, Greek for “change in form,” is the transformation of one cell type into another, usually as a response to chronic irritation or stress. This process allows the body tissue to better withstand adverse conditions, at the risk of impairing its original function and/or the transformation becoming irreversible. Thematically, this performance will explore the nonconsensual nature of existence, chaos and control, cryptobiosis, and mindfulness in the contemporary world. An original musical soundscape created by Corin will accompany the performance throughout its duration.

This performance is undeniably significant and special. I began my journey at the Columbia Children’s Theatre when I was eight years old and was raised in the local theatre and arts scene here in Columbia. After ten years, I could not be more excited to perform for my hometown again. I am honored to create alongside Michael and my deepest gratitude is extended to him and Gemini Arts.

I encourage and embolden anyone in the Carolinas interested in me, my work, Michael’s work, local Carolinian art, culture, community, and the performing and visual arts in general to attend this one-night-only event. Theatre is ephemeral; there is no substitution for being present in the space, and there will never be another moment quite like this. I believe art is necessary, and I believe in the health and liberty it provides artists and audiences alike.

Corin Wiggins

Corin Wiggins is an actor, director, and deviser of theatre. Their training and performance experience encompasses forms from the entirety of theatre history, with particular emphasis on classical verse, contemporary realism, commedia dell’arte, butoh (舞踏), and new devised work.

Raised in Columbia, South Carolina by a family of civil engineers, Corin first discovered the stage at age eight through the Columbia Children’s Theatre. Growing up in community musical theatre and child actor film agencies, including work undertaken on and off stage at both Town Theatre and Trustus Theatre, Corin began their professional actor training at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities Drama program. They hold a B.F.A. in Physical Theatre from a joint program between Coastal Carolina University and the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy.

Alongside a national presence, Corin has lived and travelled extensively outside the United States and has created and performed in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Czechia, Kazakhstan, and for audiences from all over the world via numerous international festivals. To date, they have contributed to well over one hundred projects, collectively seen by tens of thousands.

The liberation of the human is the primary goal behind Corin’s work. Corin’s original performances generally concern themselves with humans and human relationships, the conscious vs. subconscious vs. superconscious mind, and dark psychedelia.

Corin has booked work throughout the United States in 2026, as well as a butoh performance tour of Japan in the latter half of the year.

www.corinwiggins.com / [email protected] / IG: @corinwiggins

Michael Krajewski

Michael Krajewski is an artist-in-residence at Gemini Arts Collective. He is a self-taught artist described as neo-expressionist, although he is less concerned with labeling than with creating from an authentic, mindful space and expressing what he is feeling and experiencing in the moment. He works in various mediums including painting, drawing, clay, and video.

Krajewski has been commissioned to provide artwork for film and art festivals, set design for Trustus Theatre, and art for the Columbia City Ballet. He painted a mural in the Greenville Children’s Museum, and a mural in the Columbia Museum of Art, one of only two artists ever invited to paint on the walls there.

Of his many contributions to the culture of Columbia and greater South Carolina is Michael’s freehand composition on the walls of Black Rooster, a restaurant in West Columbia, where he is using the entire restaurant as his canvas to create a one-of-a-kind installation that so far is four years in the making.

[email protected] / IG: @krajewski_radar

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