The first time I ever heard of a hedge maze was in the pages of the fourth Harry Potter book. Ever since then I've always dreamed of getting lost in a huge maze with nothing but my wits to help me escape. When the National Building Museum revealed their annual summer project in 2014 was a maze I had to go. Even though it was short an easily solvable there was still the thrill of turning each corner unsure if you would find the center or another dead end.

What is it about getting lost on purpose? Why is that a situation we put ourselves in? Life is already confusing enough, yet people spend hours crafting mazes and puzzles to trick us. Every time we step in a maze we are giving ourselves over to a grand design that while confusing is beautiful and orderly. Are mazes our way of navigating the profound confusion that life brings?

I hadn't planned to go this far north of the city but as soon as my friend Attiya told me about this labyrinth garden I knew I had to change my plans. When traveling you have to create time and space to stumble upon and explore places that weren't initially a part of your itinerary. As I made my way up to the park I stumbled across "corporeal poems" created by the artist Joan Brossa. The ground was littered with deconstructed symbols of language. Letters broken by some great explosion, a question mark that looks as if it has been guillotined. I really loved how the artist made language and its deconstruction/reconstruction visible and somatic.

The Labyrinth Park in Horta, Barcelona takes the honor of being the oldest garden in the city, work began on it in 1791. It only costs about 2-3 euro's to enter everyday except Wednesday's when its free. While the maze is the highlight with the center, above, containing a statue of Eros- the Greek God of Love, there a lot more to see. The maze is a short endeavor but surprisingly tricky. I made it most of the way but kept getting confused on a confusing three-way turn. Eventually I realized my mistake and made it to the center. The statue is framed so beautifully among the hedges. I sat for a while before completing the rest of the maze.

Once you get past the maze there is more gardens and architecture to see and explore. The entire grounds is gorgeous and well worth the cheap entry fee. Its a fun place to come with friends and family or to explore by yourself and get lost with your thoughts. I can't wait to come back here again and have a photoshoot among the grounds.

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I was introduced to Iniko an extremely talented artist by a mutual online friend. We connected over facebook messenger but didn't end up meeting for the shoot until the last 2 weeks of my time in Tokyo due to both of our busy schedules. I had so much fun shooting them, we got to talk about our mutual passions of performing arts, acting and music while exploring Hinokicho Park. I had always walked by and through this park on my way to dinner parties but I had never taken the time to truly explore this tiny slice of nature in the middle of Roppongi.

One of the things Iniko and I talked about was what intrigued them about the project. They said, "For most of my life I've navigated as a black femme and only recently realized that I am genderfluid. I wanted to be able to play with that fluidity in this shoot. Being ambiguous to people has always been something I love." I was so happy to hear that because I love using fashion and my body to play with gender. And I loved the outfit that Iniko wore because it played with different binaries like child/adult, feminine/masculine.

When asked about the portrayal of blackness in Japan Iniko stated, "Blackness in Tokyo is still thought of as a style, I think. There are shops dedicated to looking ghetto and Ive seen plenty of Japanese people with cornrows and tanned skin. However, that perception is slowly but surely changing." My eyes widened, thankfully I never saw any of the stores that sell ghetto chic because I would have had some words about the commodification of blackness in Japan. But I have seen multiple Japanese people treat my friends and I like our hair or our bodies were open for consumption. I'm happy they think the perception is slowly changing but with black face still happening in Japan on television they have a long way to go.

Check out Iniko's music on Spotify here.

See other photos from the series.

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