'YELLOW' is a performance artwork which was performed on a train in Sydney. This work is a response to the increased Asian targeted crime in Western countries and brings attention to how the stereotype against Asians which was mostly constructed by Western media, are still embedded in today’s society.
The performer, Squisehd Cockroach, was overall painted in yellow paint. She walked through the train carriages while holding a bowl of rice and eating it with chopsticks. Printed articles, forum threads, tweets, screenshots of Youtube videos on Asian targeted crimes, stereotypes, discrimination against Asians and racial microaggression were scattered around the train seats and floors prior to the performance. By staging the performance in public rather than a gallery and consisting of obvious symbols, 'YELLOW' aims to be accessible to those who do not have a prior knowledge of art.
Assisted by Sujin Yang, Isabella Olgers and Roisin Concannon
Filmed by Danni Ma
Photographed by Arrietty Wachsmann
Video documentation of the performance work ‘YELLOW’.
This articles is one of the many articles that was used for the performance.
This articles is one of the many articles that was used for the performance.
The photo series ‘Find Exotic Asian Women In Your Area’ (FEAWIYA) focuses on the fetishisation of Asian women, which connects to my personal cultural experience as a Korean women living in Western society. It is a photographic satire of the objectifying and racially derogating character of the contemporary patriarchal society. The title was inspired by online dating advertisements that claims to find you ‘Asian girls’ as if they are products.
It depicts a traditionally dressed Asian woman in the mundane undertakings of 21st century life from eating pasta, to sleeping, and waiting for the bus.
The oxymoronic title of each of the pictures ("Exotic Asian Women Waits for the Bus") highlights the ludicrousness of a society which exotifies and sexually fetishizes ethnic feminity. The model wears various ethnicities' traditional clothing to highlight the ignorance of the fetishizer to the cultural specifities of the object of their fetish and the othering of the subject as she is wearing different clothes to what people in the Western society normally wear.
9hour length of performance artwork. Note the time stamp.
This work was performed on the last day of my teenage years as a marking of time and celebration of the young body. It is also about being physically and mentally present and aware during the time of passing.
A film camera with a date and time stamp was used to document this performance and the photos were taken every hour on the hour inspired by Tehching Hsieh ‘Time Clock Piece’ work.
A video camera was also used to record the entire 9hour performance.
This work was planned to be performed for 24hours however it was shut down by the security.
‘OUT’ is a performance work that attempts to release everything that has been stored in my brain from memory, knowledge to opinions and emotions out onto a large piece of fabric in a written form till the fabric is filled. This performance went for about 6 hours straight. Audiences entered and left the space whenever they wanted.
This work is about the relationship between the body and the past. It also explores the limitation of human brain.
A black pen was used to write general factual things such as, ‘Snails don’t have genders’ , ‘Kurt Cobain died when he was 27 years old.’ or list of train station names in Sydney. A red pen was used to write down more personal informations as well as memories, opinions or emotions such as, ‘010-9437-7048 is my mum’s phone number when we used to live in Korea’ , or ‘Stimulating nipples is a very good technique but not many guys seem to know that.’
