The Lost Twelve Years – at Rapid Pulse Performance Art Festival

 

The Lost Twelve Years, 2015. Performance, 25 minutes at Rapid Pause International Performance Art Festival in Chicago

step 1. pinch my forehead until there is red dot appears
step 2. use a spoon to scratch my neck until there is red line appears
step 3. draw pink circles on my belly
step 4. throw gold paper to audience
step 5. pour ink on my back from a tea pot
step 6. shoot myself with ink

After living aboard as a Chinese for 12 years, I noticed there is a tremendous change inside me: something that has nurtured and cultivated me has gradually faded and forgotten. The gesture of shooting myself with ink is a political gesture. It is not only an apology for my twelve-year absence but also a manifestation that reveals my urgent needs to renew my lost tradition and culture. The ink is an essential material for Chinese traditional painting and calligraphy. In my performance, the ink is not to be used as an artistic tool to reproduce the appearance of the subject, but to be used as a weapon against myself. this performance examines relationships between me and the place I live, between what I have lost and what I have gained. This performance is also a ritual meditation. In this suicidal ritual, I baptize myself with Chinese ink in order to be saved from fear of loss, preserve my identity from the process of self-transformation, and to capture my stray soul in a foreign land.

photo credit: Tongyu Zhao.

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I Have Been There – Part II

Each time I travel to a new city, I make a new duvet cover with silk fabric, I take photographs of myself lying in front of historical and tourist sites, covered by the corpse sheet.

in villages of my hometown province, when an elder is dead, each daughter will make a silk duvet cover, called Corpse Cover, and cover her parent’s dead body, which representing how her parent took care of her when she was young. if this elder has six daughters, he/she will be covered by six duvets, one on top each other, i don’t know why daughters only, i never ask neither.

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As If Never Happened

Two beds face each other, one is covered with peanuts, another one is empty, I start to shuck peanuts and leave peanuts’ shell on the empty bed . When audiences come, they are invited to shuck peanuts with me, eat peanuts seeds while leaving peanuts shells on the bed. Peanuts can be taken to home, but shells must be left on the bed. Audiences participate both in my presence and absence.

performed eight hours at Hamilton Artist Inc,. in Hamilton, Canada

photo credit: Caitlin Sutherland

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My First Teddy (II)

 

I collected used stuffed animals, taking portraits of them, and then I cut their mouths, taking portrait of them, finally, I sewed different mouths into different animals, taking portraits of them again

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My First Teddy (III)

collected used stuffed animals, taking portraits of them.
I cut their mouths, taking portrait of them.
Finally, I sewed different mouths into different animals, taking portraits of them again.

photo credit: Viku Chan

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Art Must be Expensive, Shame Shame Shame

step 1: introducing my perfumes: Channel No 5, j’adore, and La vie est belle
step 2: telling stories about my life related to shame
step 3: asking three well-known artist, curator, and collector to spray perfumes on me while audiences were repeatively shouting ” art must be expensive! shame shame shame”
step 4: trying to sell all my clothing and my body, the price i start from high to low. finally my shirt was sold: $50, my camisole was sold: $60, my belt: $40, pants: $30, underwear: $80, shoes: $80, and my body ( sold for one night) : $70. TOTAL INCOME: $410 USD

it was performed at Grace Exhibition Space in New York, photo credit:Quinn Dukes McDivitt

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I Have Been There – Part I

Manizales, Colombia

Each time I travel to a new city, I make a new duvet cover with silk fabric, I take photographs of myself lying in front of historical and tourist sites, covered by the corpse sheet.

in villages of my hometown province, when an elder is dead, each daughter will make a silk duvet cover, called Corpse Cover, and cover her parent’s dead body, which representing how her parent took care of her when she was young. if this elder has six daughters, he/she will be covered by six duvets, one on top each other, i don’t know why daughters only, i never ask neither.

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