The Emperor’s New Diaper

 

photo by Dayna Danger, performed by Wing Sze Tsang-Hy, Peter Meritzis; Bodypainting by Yandel; photo of installation review by Hua Jin

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Will You Marry Me?

Visualieyez 2010 Performance Festival, Jubilee Audition, Edmonton, Alberta. september 18, 2010. video by  Heather Challoner.

I approach a man with a rose, asking him if I can ask him a question. If he agrees, I say “will you marry me?” right in front of his ear with very soft tone. After he says yes, I pin the rose on his chest, and offer myself to him for two minutes.

At Jubilee Audition in Edmonton on September 18th, 2010, I proposed to twenty-eight men in three hours. Three men rejected me; eight men accepted my proposal immediately; the rest of them were ultimately convinced after a longer or shorter explanation.

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The Husbands and I- part I (2010)

photo by Ruth Skinner

from a 352 husband collection

I wear my Chinese traditional dress, walking on streets and asking white males to have photo taken with me by suggesting them to act as my husband– to explore intimacy between two strangers in public space. immigrated to Canada couple of  years ago, and i  regard the whole process of immigration as a marriage, and myself like a mail order bride. I married Canada, suddenly transforming myself from a Chinese to a Canadian or a Chinese Canada. My identity is not constructed by Canadian  history, culture or its landscape, but the white males who are around me.

The physical encounter between me and the white males actually is an ideological confrontation between me and the Western social and political landscape that I feel I don’t belong to. By exploring intimacy with them, I try to not only reconfigure the established centered power that the privileged white males embody, but also question whether the culturally interpreted Chinese female body, both as a foreign subject and object, can be invested and exploited.

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Rice Performance Series–Arrival

 

it was performed at Slivers, Shivers, and Snake Skin- A Happening,Chapel Arts  2010

I fill a bamboo basket with white and black rice, so there is white rice on the left, black rice on the right. I sit on a bamboo mat,  grapping rice and tossing it to audiences whild reciting an ancient Chinese poem.

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Rice Performance Series–It Is the Way of Being

 

 

 

photo and video by James Zhang

performed at PAct 4: Trade opening at  Vancouver International Centre for contemporary Asian Art and Pacific Cinematheque, 2010

I demonstrate a process of selecting rice. I use a sieve to screen out the small ones, picke out those  imperfections, and keep the regular ones that fit perfectly.

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The Other Side of Already Known

photo and Video by ماريا  Hechanova

I hang up 60 pieces of black chair on the ceiling and stack tables in a room, i stand on a table, hang my hair with a rope, i tear a book one paper after another while i am reading it. the audiences are invited to come under the ceiling of chair, pick up paper that i throw on the floor, and read it with me.

Multiculturalism as an ideology or strategy consists of a relatively coherent set of ideas and ideals that emphasize the celebration ofCanada’s cultural diversity. Tolerance is a central idea of the state ideology of multiculturalism. However, for me, the concept of tolerance is contradictory to multiculturalism. According to Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, tolerance is “the quality of allowing other people to say and do as they like, even if you do not agree or approve of it.” Tolerance is also “the ability to bear something painful or unpleasant” (1762). However, this emphasis on tolerance in the multicultural content both politically and ideologically, implies positions of superiority and inferiority because it divides people to two polarized groups: the tolerating and the tolerated. In fact, tolerance is a minimal form of recognition of an individual or group, implicitly assuming that some attributes and behavior associated with minority groups need to be accepted, condoned, or sanctioned. In other words, we tolerate because we disapprove; we tolerate because “they” are different. And thus, the acceptance by the dominant culture is dependent on the good will, forbearance, and benevolence of those who do the tolerating. Indeed, the dominant culture, “the tolerant national self,” is not only seen as the guardian of the social order, but also as tolerating others . As a result, the relationship between dominated and dominant cultures is a racialized relationship. And multiculturalism as a concept provides little challenge to racist status quo because a ceiling of tolerance is built.

in my performance and installaton, I hung up 60 pieces of black chairs in a room to build the ceiling of danger to reveal tension, disharmony, and discomfort that the concept of tolerance of multiculturalism brings.

Chairs are a symbol of welcome, but by hanging them on the ceiling, they lose their symbolic meaning and become unwelcoming and threatening substances. In addition, desks, originally functioning as a device bringing us together in order to communicate or negotiate, however, by stacking them up, they lose their functionality. It seems that the dominant culture is generous and benevolent by offering the welcome chairs to the dominated cultures. However, these welcome chairs are not located on the ground but on the ceiling. And thus, it creates a dangerous situation threatening the new immigrants who seek shelter in this multicultural society. In fact, the ceiling of tolerance is a ceiling of danger. By inviting my audiences to come under the chairs and experience the danger of tolerance. This piece not only reveals my struggle as a tolerating Other, but also, raises awareness about Canadian racial minorities’ living conditions because the ceiling of tolerance is built.

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