Guild Hall William P. Rayner Artists-in-Residence Holland Andrews and yuniya edi kwon share an in-process presentation of their experimental opera, How does it feel to look at nothing.
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO LOOK AT NOTHING is an experimental opera and embodied pre-origin story of a Deity of Nothingness. Working through an improvised language of disintegration, the project blends composition, improvisation, movement, and ritual to explore the forces and conditions that compel life’s emergence, and the spiritual act of meaning-making during epochs of decay. Grounded in their shared spiritual lineages and lives as partners, the work is shaped by Holland and yuniya’s lived experiences as trans artists of color, engaging questions of queer parenthood, trans pregnancy, and contemporary socio-political disintegration through a poetic, elemental lens.
The in-process showing offers a glimpse into the evolving performance language of the work, as Holland and yuniya appear as composer-performers, soloists, and multi-instrumentalists. Drawing from Korean Shamanic Ritual, channeled singing, contemporary opera, American experimentalism, punk and hardcore, and Japanese Butoh, they embody fluid and entangled identities—elemental force, deity, witness, child, parent, and memory—within a living, syncretic creative process.
Creators / Composer-Performers / Soloists: Holland Andrews & yuniya edi kwon
Creative Producer: Roya Amirsoleymani
Sound Design: Lester St. Louis
Lighting & Production: Maggie Heath
Scenic Design: KC Englander
Stage Manager: Ariana Swei
Costume Design: Bonan Li
Movement Coach: Marie Lloyd Paspe
How does it feel to look at nothing has received support from a Guggenheim Fellowship, Creative Capital Award, Sweat Variant’s Artists Supporting Artists Program Grant, and the Baroness Nina von Maltzahn Fellowship from The Watermill Center. The project has been developing in residencies at Teatro Municipal do Porto (Portugal), National Sawdust, BAM, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, Shadowcliff Artist Residency, The Watermill Center, and Guild Hall. The project’s lead commissioner is John C. Robinson, with special thanks to Chiwoniso Kaitano. The project is powered by its 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor, Producer Hub.
How does it feel to look at nothing will have its world premiere in Fall 2026 before touring nationally and internationally.









