a snake in the house means the family will never want
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2022
Performance, 27 min A multi-sensory performance blending visual art/sculptural costuming, dance & live electronica, the title of the work is based on an old Chinese proverb, and the departure point for articulating lived experiences & intimacies as Asian diaspora with cultural misunderstandings, intergenerational healing & transformation. Opening with an audio voicenote of the artist’s mother reflecting on overwork, xenophobia & cultural invisibility through the semiotics of the snake & ingrained tendency of Hek Fu 吃苦 (transl.: eating bitterness), the song of the declining dialect of Toisanese forms the background to which the duo onstage perform a choreography suspended in repetitive mechanisms between work and ritual. Movement eventually departs into sensuous animalism, exploring what liberatory potential is there when we learn from & embody more than what is human. Wearing sculptural costuming illuminated by light, and shifting form with the dancer’s movements, the performance projects transformational imaginings of cultural & futuristic hybridity. This iteration has been developed in collaboration with choreographer & performer Ting-ning Wen. CREDITS Choreography & performance: Monica Tolia & Ting-ning Wen Sound composition: Monica Tolia Voiceover: Fong Shao Ying Writing: Monica Tolia & Shao Ying Fong Toisan Transl.: Shao Ying Fong & Vince Ng Dramaturgical support: Phoenix Tanner Exhibitions/events: Premier 10 June 2022: Resolution Festival, The Place (London) PRESS RELEASE TRAILER INTERVIEW - CHINESE ARTS NOW (CAN) INTERVIEW - DANCE ART JOURNAL |
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VIDEO STILLS FROM PERFORMANCE
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