Why make performances of pleasure, putting the body through challenge, and modeling beauty through action instead of just stating them clearly through text? I struggle with these concerns, and know how much of it come from a sense of visceral feeling in expression this way.In recent ideas of installation making, I want others to experience that surprise of encountering something body-like but perhaps not.
I believe my art making aims to tap into a sense of overcoming, because that moment of release is when I am the most clear and at peace. That is when I can more readily to come to a different opinion of myself, to give more of myself to the world around me.
I think words can be so confining; is it true that if we cannot name something it does not exist? Do feelings really need words to be valid? Perhaps it is because of my upbringing, early on, exposed to multiple foreign languages I was trying to assimilate into, I have these questions. I constantly felt in my 20s how verbally untrue I was, and yet, how much I was asked to be clear, in a very specific way. I tried and gained more tools, but eventually realized this was not my conduit.
I am concerned with catharsis, lived experience, and how a different density (like water and air) allows the body to “snap” out its own dull material quality of existence. I also am invested in friendship, and how without it, we are simply just contributing to the capitalist ideals of becoming, aspiring to consumption, wealth, and abundance. With these ideas in mind, I invite you to the opening of Moderately and with Great Boredom curated by Lauren Sudbrink at Patient Info, Chicago, IL between Friday September 25-October 25th.
Patient Info is open Saturdays between 12-4pm but there is an opening tonight if you want to make new friends. I am out sick but perhaps you are in the mood, if you are in the neighborhood.
(Photos by Tianjiao Wang of me performing Digging through Softness at Alana Ferguson’s show at Comfort Station April 2025, SLAPHAPPY.)
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