On that first evening, after the call to prayer, the residents of Koja Doi gathered on the dock. The young people perform a welcome dance in bright orange traditional dress. When they finish, it’s the turn of Arka Kinari. The deck transforms into multiple stages. Nova kicks things off, incarnating the goddess of the Southern Ocean, her ethereal song of Javanese poetry carrying into the night. Grey joins on percussion, his face draped in sequin cloth. They’re silhouetted against the sail, now doubling as a projection screen, displaying cinematic visuals which imagine a future after the seas have risen. The crew play out the survivors, here to sound the alarm for ecological disaster and invite the audience to join them in a new future.
“We’re not a novelty,” says Grey, when I attend a presentation he gives about the project aboard a barge on the Newton Creek in Brooklyn, New York two years later in 2021. He has bright green eyes and a gold tooth, the lines on his face…