2022
Object
Materials: Brass, Cement (dyed)
Dimensions: 42″ x 28″ x 17″
Photo credit: Rebekah Alviani
Performance
single channel HD video
5:02 minutes
Statement
In Depart, the body explicitly transform along with the restraint. The large-scale wearable sculpture is made with brass mesh and dark colored cement, with the style of Brutalist architecture. Cement was chosen to create visual weightiness, and the exposed gold colored mesh symbolizes the past glory of aged architecture. As the object is placed on the body, it forces the wearer to adopt the posture of a puppet, with the head tilted to the side, given its weight and structure. Five brass wires extends out from each of the two ends of the object, connecting to five brass rings. The performer puts on the rings on each hand and pull the piece against the neck, enhancing the posture. The object, together with the body posture that it forces into, display the irony that the marionette is also the marionettist, that we are controlled by things we built and, therefore, voluntarily strip away the self and hide behind the history.