How to Draw a Circle
Medium: Video Installation & Art Performance
Live art performance Link: https://youtu.be/kUuGdpm3dSM
Date: 05/2023
This project shows my dialogue with myself in a two-channel video. I try to explore how my multiple identities of being a fan of a Korean pop (K-POP) female group, a performer of K-POP dance, and a cultural researcher at the same time have shaped my perception of K-pop female group culture and its fan culture.
In the performance video, I am like Narcissus who is finally free from the constraints of the external gaze and has a glimpse of myself at the beginning, but as the desire to be watched and the discipline of invisibility deepens, I continues to use the body to draw circles, gradually becoming the gaze of the audience and the spotlight itself. It all seems like a ritual, from gradually revealing oneself to blending into the gaze, from being aware of her body’s sensuousness and sexuality, and slowly being drawn by mysterious forces to follow the spotlight as if it was destined to happen.Uniformity seems to be inevitable in the process of socialization, and "self" becomes the most illusory word.
I had the performance art twice. The first one was a solo performance without any audience. It was just me interacting with the lighting and the surrounding environment of the dance studio. The second performance was in front of a large audience. At that performance, I couldn't help but vacillate between contemplation and narration. I also entered a state of craving to be watched, and my identity as a K-POP dancer returned to me, tearing at my identity as an artist. During the performance art process, I unexpectedly broke down and cried.
Another video was recorded at a K-POP fan performance and a random dance event, where I fully immersed myself in the environment and recalled how I used to feel when performing K-POP . In the video, I keep switching the perspective of the performer and the viewer, but these perspectives are interacting and disturbing each other, such as the lines across the reflection on the stage, the teardrops in the eyes that suddenly appear to dissipate the reflection, the spotlight reflected from the cell phone screen and projected on the defocused real lighting, and the silhouette of a person who seems to walk past the camera but is actually reflected by the glass in front of the camera. The circle, lines, light and reflection are intertwined, like a process in which self and society, real and fiction, are nested. The smooth but rhythmic visual rhythm combined with the abstract light effects, together with the ambient sound effects that seem to rub gently on the cerebral cortex, gives the whole work a meditative meaning, adding a sense of perception of the body itself when immersed in the dance.
In the exhibition section, I continue the concept of reflection, in addition to presenting two videos in the dance studio where the performance art video was recorded, I also reflect the video with mirrored paper to give the environment a dreamy atmosphere.
