Longing for harmonies (part 1)

2022

performance installation

duration 30 mins. 

The subjects of Identity, Consciousness and Othering are constant in my work. Longing for harmonies is a performance-installation of many parts, and of many pieces that includes a Western/European style wedding dress, hazmat suit, paper parasols, ghost money, incense, scissors, beads, Virgin Mary figure, eggshells, an Áo dài (a traditional Vietnamese dress). These are symbolic protagonists, each of which are beholden to a meditative ritual that is engulfed in an incongruous collage of sound. The piece makes public an array of private questions of cultural traditions, gender, migration, hybrid identities, history, as well as the personal and collective unconscious. 

photography Jeff Cravotta

Longing for harmonies (part 2)

2023

mixed media installation: video projection, sound, objects

Ogden Contemporary Arts, Utah

Longing for harmonies (part 2) is part installation and part archive of the 30-minute live performance. Snippets of the presentation are recorded and projected onto parasols utilized and torn in front of live audiences from previous performances. In the middle of the room sits a narrow table displaying personal objects I ritually use for both prayer and my studio practice. Several objects reflect my cultural and spiritual hybrid upbringing. I was raised in a Buddhist household and educated in the Christian South. 

April 28, 2022

Mixed Blessing opening reception, Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art

photos by Peter Zay