Song of MyselfJan-Feb 2025
Experimental performance with installation and digital projection
Materials: mask, extra long scissors, keyboard, cord switch lamps (2), longsword, cement blocks (9), keyboard caps, buttons, sewing string
Length: ~7 minutes
An embrace with cutting blades, a monster pointing a knife toward itself, entangled limbs striking the light on and off, a sword that types out flowery symbols, an Asian body repeating an English poem…
Inspired by and directly quoting Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself, 51,” Song of Myself is a journey to reveal the embodied multitudes—the seeming contradictions that clash and coexist within a single living individual.
Beast/human, male/female, barbaric/civilized, Eastern/Western, archaic/modern, brutality/elegance, vulnerability/aggression, comprehensible/unintelligible—these dualities flow and bleed into one another as transient states. This work does not seek to represent a fixed “identity”; rather, it challenges the artificial labeling of identity concepts, which oversimplifies, limits, and controls individuals who should have access to free will, nuance, and complexity.
Song of Myself is also an homage to the beauty and power of rotation. The bizarre-looking, elbow-controlled scissor devices, the lamp and string systems, the physical mechanics behind fighting, dancing, wielding a sword, or performing daily tasks—all draw their power from the twist of muscles and joints, a primitive and intrinsic form of “self-contradiction.”
The props used in the performance are either repurposed found objects (cement bricks, lamps, keyboards, hooks, etc.) or handcrafted works (mask, straps, scissor covers, etc.). I believe what connects these seemingly random and unrelated objects is the movement of my body, the way they interact with each other, and their liberation from their original “purposes.” During the crafting process, I aim to preserve the realistic, textured details of the materials while simultaneously designing a sense of folktale abstraction—depicting a tangible yet surreal dream for the viewers.