Below is photo documentation of my live performance entitled Corporeal Restraints.
The performance and sculptural remains were included in a show at San Francisco Art Institute entitled Parsing Dissent-- a show aiming to challenge dominate power structures and subjects as natural and inevitable.
The performance itself comprised of 70 yards of fabric cord material treated with latex and a bit of water soluble pigments for coloring. I used my body as a tool for making, sitting in a chair and arm knitting the material until its completion. There is a tension created between a craft tradition of knitting within an art gallery setting, using my queer body to perform a gendered activity and that material used to perform the activity being reflective of our inner body i.e. intestines. In exhaustively sitting with, almost mending my sculptural insides I am left with my own thoughts to reflect on inner shame I have felt being queer and struggling with my gender identity. In some instances I am literally bound by the material and therefore metaphorically bound by society's gendered expectations. In addition my inability to perform the task of knitting perfectly is matched by the physical pain I have to put myself through in order to keep the knit tight and proper. The performance lasted 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Photo documentation was by fellow artist Mengmeng Lu
Video documentation was by fellow artist Yiling Zeng