China. 2017. Visual Performance.
Living in a highly digital era, every flesh has become a two-dimensional image. I used my face, yogurt and passport photos of my own to question about to what degree must we look like ourselves? Being formatted and digitized, our features has been flattened in order to fit in our authenticated identity and nationality. In this sense, the actual features have to imitate the state-sanctioned documentation, and ‘I’ must pass for myself.
Bio: Whiskey Chow
Whiskey Chow (b. 1989)
Whiskey Chow is a London-based artist and Chinese drag king. Coming from an activist background in China, Whiskey has been engaging with political issues in her practice exploring themes of female masculinity, stereotypes and cultural projections of Chinese/Asian identity as interdisciplinary performance, moving image and experimental sound pieces. Whiskey has been involved in feminist and LGBTQ activism in China since she was 20. She has worked closely with local queer communities in Guangzhou and contributed as actor, co-playwright and sound designer in the production of ‘For Vaginas’ Sake’ (將陰道獨白到底, the original Chinese version of The Vagina Monologues). Whiskey has also taught gender education in community theatres in south China and has participated in a number of queer cultural events, including curating China’s first LGBTQ music festival (愛人同志音樂會, Lover Comrades Concert) in Guangzhou in 2013. Whiskey’s recent performances include: Unhomeliness, Tate Modern, London (2018); Purely Beautiful New Era (featuring Haocheng Wu), Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Great Conversation, Uppsala Konstmuseum, Uppsala; Whiskey the Conqueror, Toynbee Studios (Artsadmin), London(2017); Long Live American, Galeria Labirynt, Lublin; Look Like Myself Enough?, Liverpool Biennial Fringe, Liverpool (2016). Whiskey also gave artist talk or spoke on panels in higher education institutions in the UK, including University of Oxford, Goldsmiths, University of London, University of Westminster, University of Nottingham and SOAS University of London.