curriculum vitae

weizen  ho

weiofzen@gmail.com

born in melaka,  malaysia

lives in the gundungurra and darug lands of the blue mountains, nsw, australia

selected projects and activities:

2025

Convergences, Relevances, Rex Cramphorn Performance Research Studio’s artist-in-residence program in hosted by the discipline of Theatre and Performance Studies (TaPS) at the University of Sydney, delves into the process of 'experience becoming embodied language’, and the inquiry of place possessing sentience and memory, Create NSW Next Steps - Professional Development;

Development and performance collaborator with Josh Pether on his 12-hour performance of Monster in the Cyborg Body, Yirramboi Festival, Arts Centre Melbourne;

ineffable - an open group process, devising ways to disrupt our conventions of devising and making works;  with invited noise artists H.Uchino, J.Shipton; installation artists C. Simpson, M. Roberts, L. Braye, V. Bader; performance artist A. Schacher and D. Lopez Lomeli,  Balmain Town Hall, Creative Town Halls Program.

2024

Purge II was presented in September as part of a Willoughby City Council curated group exhibition called UNBROKEN GESTURES. Purge II was a commissioned sculptural installation examining cultural hunger and durational symbolic actions, generated and modified in two durational public performances, using the materials butterfly pea flowers, turmeric root, cooked glutinous black rice, bamboo straws, handmade paper by WeiZen and Primrose Paper Arts, blotting paper, wooden frame, glass jars and bottles;

the subtle beings - emergence, was presented by HAND UNMADE in August as a vocal, movement and installation performance using pig skin embedded with synthetic horse hair, where she re-imagines a Rungus dance ritual from Kampung Minyak, Sabah in Malaysian Borneo; review of event: https://www.classikon.com/hand-unmade-and-remade-backstage-musics-daring-musical-innovations/;

Rotterdam research residency, exploring the framework of Being and Place by inviting local residents through Walk with me, Rotterdam, for Performance Art Event (PAE). This culminated in an improvisational event with the walker-participants at Leszaal, Rijnhoutplein, Rotterdam;

embodiments suburbia, collaborative public space performance interventions in Old Amsterdam and Distelweg between WeiZen and Dagmar I. Glausnitzer-Smith, Amsterdam;

The Almanac, The Husk (Cover me in Time), 3-hour participatory performance using the materials: different lengths of sticks, a large bowl of water, Chinese almanac paper and written instructions, Performance Art Event (PAE) at WOLk foundation, Charlois, Rotterdam;

Pink Regenesis of the Curse, an open durational performance by Ryuichi Fujimura and WeiZen Ho, which responds intimately to the real and imagined memories embedded in the land, waterways, and architecture in the White Bay area. The performance takes place across the ground floor of White Bay Power Station, emerging out of the flow of people, as well as the nooks and crannies of the building. EDGE White Bay, part of Sydney Biennale programme, White Bay Power Station;

Amulet Body installation based on deconstructed ideas of divination and sacred-word protection in SouthEast Asia, with group participatory performances inside and one-to-one divination performances on the streets of Haymarket, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art;

Jan 7 & 8 site-based performances devised for Dream Village, Dream Beach, Taixi, hosted by Liping, Taiwan

2023

Stories from the Body (SFTB) #1, adapted from public footpath and Maman sculpture to the North Wing site, 2-day opening programme, Louise Bourgeois’ exhibition Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day, Art Gallery NSW;

Sounds Like Divination I, II, III, and other material/object-body performances devised for Manhattan public sites, sharing process and place-location with Dagmar I. Glausnitzer-Smith; Purge, material: sweet pea flower, fresh turmeric, blotting paper, bamboo straw located on public footpath, Grace Exhibition Space; …them sprites lonelied forth…, material: 2m coil of steel wire, hessian strings, light bulb, Rosekill farm, part of Immersive - New York Live Art Tour 8, Rosedale, New York, Create NSW Small Projects;

Stories from the Body #6, #7, participatory performance, CONSENT, Carriageworks Up Late Program;

Inhabiting Time, participant in workshop course by Marilyn Arsem, EEC Performance Art (an online teaching and research platform dedicated to strengthening the discipline of performance art);

Stories from the Body #10, materials: stool and food paste, adapted to Laundromat on Angus Avenue, Cementa Turns 10, Kandos NSW;

Crouching Toes Under Red Skies, participant in workshop by Dagmar I. GLausnitzer-Smith, Blue Mountains Theatre and Community Hub, Springwood.

2022

Performance amalgamation of Stories from the Body #1, #6,#7, materials: hair, participants and black pipes, SOFT CENTRE, UNFURL Festival, Pleasures Playhouse, an abandoned cinema in Sydney Chinatown, Haymarket;

Performature : Performateur 4, concept initiator, 6 hour durational ensemble performance, Art in the Heart of Haymarket, 4a Centre for Contemporary Asian Art;

Stories from the Body #1 adapted to include public participation through handmade pipe-bellow objects, programmed by Performance Space, Performance Contemporary for Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks;

Evaporative Body, Multiplying Body initiated by and co-devised with A. Schacher, Lighting Artist Fausto Brusamolino, Sound Artist Hirofumi Uchino, Keir Choreographic Award commission, Dancehouse Theatre and Carriageworks (venue partner)

Methods, Memories, Body-possessions writing published for ADSR Zine 016

What Persists social choreographic research between Blue Mountains and Yogyakarta with A. Schacher, Phillip Mar (social researcher), Mella Jaarsma (collaborating artist), Mira Asriningtyas (social researcher & curator), Critical Path’s Open Skies Research Project

Dying- Differently, Possibly, a durational and participatory installation art for Cementa Festival 2022, Kandos, NSW;

illuminations of created space, 3 performance installation sessions as part of the Willoughby City Council curated exhibition Parallel Wanderings 双 行 游., Art Space on the Concourse, Chatswood

2021 Amulet Body, material development stage only, for a 3-day evolving performance-installation concept as part of Australian Love Stories, National Portrait Gallery, ACT;

The Ground, My Home, Chicago-based live-streaming: 60 min performance action of wiping down the floor surface of the home, to courtyard deck to the streets of my neighbourhood, part of Flow-embody symposium organised by Out of Site;

Performature : Performateur #3, researching & devising expanded performance-making and explorations in crossing disciplines, StSt.Ari, Katoomba;

Australia-Taiwan Digital Residency Exchange project; to create bilingual material exploring 10 artists’ practice for English and Chinese speaking audiences, and the basis for face-to-face future collaborations, Critical Path and ArtWave;

The Invisibles, POV film, DanceLens Film Festival Selection.

2020 Feb-2021 Dying - Differently Possibly, socio-cultural landscape residency, Cementa Inc., Kandos, NSW. This research and development period will contribute towards a durational and participatory performance installation for Cementa Festival 2022, Create NSW Small Projects.

2020

Mysteries Lab - magic in contemporary dance?, Critical Path choreographic research, Kandos, NSW

The Invisibles, a solo VR filmwork for New Realities; choreography inspired by hair and roots, Theatre Kantaka; 

Signature Sounds for Hereness podcast series initiated by Sarah Breen-Lovett, Blue Mountains City of the Arts Quick Grant;

2019

A Kind of Divination, performance-installation, Coterie to Coterie exhibition part of Biennale of International Reductive and Non-Objective Art, Stores Building Project, Parramatta.

A Kind of Divination, duet with A.Schacher, Willoughby Biennale The Tenacious Realm, Chatswood.

Stories from the Body #1, performance-installation, with every breath exhibition, Blue Mountains City Art Gallery, Katoomba;

Memoria: Voice, Body, Memory, 2-day workshop, Blue Mountains City Art Gallery, Katoomba

Article WeiZen Ho by Carolynne Skinner, OzArts Magazine.

Performature: Performateur 2, devising for improvisatory sound, movement and visual art, Splinter Magic 2019, Tempe Jets, Tempe.

Artist-in-resident at Articulate project space on the concept of Performature: Performateur as a framework to extend the physical and language boundaries of performance-making. Invited artists: Sue Callanan, Margaret Roberts and Alan Schacher.

Developing & performing for sites at Gam Troi Valley, Lam Son, Dao Xuan Festival curated by Dao Anh Khanh., Hoa Binh Province, Vietnam,

Speaking With Mouth Full, co-curated with Alan Schacher a structured improvisatory performance as part of Art Month, supported by City of Sydney, Green Square Library. This event brings together performing artists and musicians who lead a journey through the library, examining the book as device, language as a medium for conveying musicality, and reading as a choral communion. Featuring Jim Denley: wind instruments, Luiz Gabriel Gubeissi: double bass, WeiZen Ho: performer, Linda Luke: performer/dancer, Phillippa Murphy-Haste: clarinets and viola, Alan Schacher: performer, Hirofumi Uchino (Defektro): hand-made instruments and electronics.

2018

Devised a participatory performance-installation Sharing a Meal with your Ghost for participants to invite the ghost of a departed friend or family member to share a meal, KRACK! Studio, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Devised A Social Walking Ritual for Nan Loeng Community led by two elders, a walk linking sites surrounding the temple area Khwaeng Wat Sommanat and the old town market, while leaving a trail of yellow flowers purchased from Pak Khlong Talat (flower market) which formed part of the temple ‘industry’.  Also developed and performed Stories from the Body #9 with collaborators Taka Takiguchi, AñA Wojak and Brandon Jaye Cassidy; curated by Ploy Yamtree and Mike Hornblow, Buffalo Field 2018, Bangkok, Thailand. 

Co-devising and facilitating Transmission workshop with Joshua Pether, Meeting Place 2018 Forum for Disability Arts and Culture, Alice Springs

2nd recording project with Splinter Orchestra, Piliga Track, NSW National Park

Evaporative Body, Multiplying Body is a Critical Path-UNSW Dance Research Residency. Collaborating with artists Mike Leggett (experimental video & film) and Fausto Brusamolino (lighting design). Alan Schacher and WeiZen are interested to research ways in which the body can evaporate and multiply, change its very substance, transmute, relocate. Concepts like possession, ghosting, vibrational energy, reality and projection will be examined physically and by means of augmentation in light, projection and media. Mediums employed will include screen or other surfaces, reflections and fog or haze. The work refers to transitional boundaries between life and death. Between spirit and sci-fi, scepticism, faith and superstition.

 t h e   s u b t l e   b e i n g s  is a performance installation (Articulate project space) that is the result of two years of travel in Asia to research and witness of rituals in Sabah (East Malaysia) and Hanoi (Vietnam), rituals that are connected to her own geographical and socio-cultural lineage. The work integrates sculptural pieces using human hair, synthetic hair, synthetic horse hair fibre and mirror film; text, sound, sound circuitry, movement, vocals, projected video, as well as audience participation and response.

The collaborators are Katja Handt (costume designer), Iqbal Barkat (associate director - film, dramaturgy, installation), Vincent Tay (lighting & event cinematography), Binh Ta (cultural guide and associate artist in Hanoi), Damian Castaldi (kinetic sound circuitry design & installation), Michael Tosuito (sound design collaborator & engineer), Sarah Keighery, William Seeto, Louise Morgan, Alexandra Mitchell, Naomi Ullmann, Alan Schacher (installation team), Oliver Damian (performance ritual helper), Alan Schacher (choreographic consultant).

The project was made possible by Australia Council's Arts Project grant for WeiZen to study and develop Performances, Interpreted & Reimagined of Asian Animistic & Shamanistic Rituals 2016-2018.

2017

A collaborative creative development and performance presentation with Linda Luke of Subterranean at Melaka Arts and Performance Festival with Quick Grant funding from Create NSW.  Daytime site performance improvisation of Stories from the Body #5.

Stories from the Body #8 , presented by Julie Vulcan in absentia, as part of Critical Path's Interchange Festival .

Energy, Data Abstraction and Cognitive Capitalism (EDACC),an exhibition of six artists who live and/or work in Blue Mountains: myself, Ian Milliss, Naomi Oliver, Rebecca Waterstone, Gianni Wise and curator-mentee Jacquelene Drinkall. This exhibition formed the 1st of The KIOSK 3X6 PROJECT supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.  I proposed a participatory performance installation Stories from the Body #7 for this residency-exhibition.

Facilitated a two-day workshop The Beginning of Peace-Making and a participatory performance Stories from the Body #6 for the Festival of Death and Dying in Melbourne and Sydney.

Devised Stories from the Body #5 for PLATFORM 2017 through De Quincey Co at ARTICULATE project space: collection of short works, installations, artworks and music by Tess de Quincey, Lux Eterna, WeiZen Ho, Samuel James, Lian Loke, Kelly Nguyen, Lynne Santos, Alan Schacher, Clytie Smith, Luke Standish, Richard Stevens, Vsevolod Vlaskine, Eugene Ward, Marcus Whale, Christie Woohouse, and 'performed objects' collaboration with artists from BOAT 2017: Anna Ingham, Jan Taylor, Toni Waburton. SMH Review by Jill Sykes

Potus Sedere: Part of the Stories from the Body Performance Series published by Rabbit Essays - a journal for nonfiction poetry, Rabbit 20 Dance (International) or Rabbit 20 Dance (within Australia)

Sound, text and vocal designer for Joshua Pether's Monster, Yirramboi - First Nations Arts Festival, Melbourne

2016

Initiated, developed and presented A Performance Response to Sangkuriang (an artist's book collaboration between Indra Digan and Arthur Boyd), with Yoka Jones (performer) and Fausto Brusamolino (lighting & installation designer); Siteworks, Bundanon Trust

Invitation to perform Stories from the Body #1 & #3, and lead workshops for the Ogijima island community, Asian Performing Arts Market, part of Setouchi Triennale 2016 Restoration of the Sea, Port Takamatsu and Ogijima, Japan.

Duet performance with Alan Schacher, Cultural Mobility commissioned by Modern Art Project's Exhibition MAPSPACE, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre.

4-week development project around solo practice with Alison Plevey, Ghenoa Gela and Josh Pether in Body as Material: Solo Practice facilitated by Julie Vulcan. This is a a partnership between Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, Bundanon Trust, FORM Dance Projects and Critical Path. Link to Concept Videos.

Recording project, Mungo at Lake Mungo and performing as part of Splinter Orchestra, Tectonics, Adelaide Festival 2016

Curated and performed in #23 SoundBitesBody, Bilpin International Ground for Creative Initiatives featuring Ash Baker, Henrietta Baird, Chris Caines & Jon Drummond, Damian Castaldi, Tess de Quincey, Alfira O'Sullivan, Bang Murtala, Benjamin Samuels, Alan Schacher, Laurie Scott Baker, Gary Warner 

2015

Curated and performed #22 Sound Bites Body, Nathan and Tina's North Katoomba property featuring The Monday Club, Bortan, Marc Bour, Kraig Grady, Terumi Narushima, Jon Drummond and Alan Schacher

Improvisatory performance for Lynne Santos, Carpe Diem at Readymade Studio, Ultimo

Performance piece, shoesandspices created with Alan Schacher based on intercultural dialogical processes for The Interchange Festival, Critical Path, Choreographic Research Lab funded by Arts NSW.

Participant and improvisatory performer in De Quincey Co’s Impro-Exchange Lab 2, led by Frank Van de Ven

Curated and performed in #21 Sound Bites Body, The Attic, Hotel Blue, Katoomba, featuring Shota Matsumura, Jim Denley, Axel Powrie, Laurnece Williams, Alex Salter, Henrietta Baird

2014-Jul 2015 Co-initiator with Alan Schacher for Creative Development stages of a group performance project Unappeased, inspired by the metaphor of the hungry ghost and the Daoist tangki-shaman rituals in Malaysia.

Curated and performed in #20 Sound Bites Body, WEST Project Space, Hazelbrook featuring Ash Baker, Mayu Kanamori, Linda Luke, Terumi Narushima, Zeb Olsen, Alan Schacher and Gary Warner.

Impro Exchange 2015-1, De Quincey Co, University of Sydney.

Curated and performed in #19 Sound Bites Body, WEST Project Space, Hazelbrook featuring Margaret Bradley, Ryuichi Fujimura, Sawung Jabo, Phillip Mills, Alan Schacher and Clayton Thomas.

Co-devised and performed with Alan Schacher on-site, Palimpsest #1, Woodford Academy, Blue Mountains. Curated by Sarah Breen-Lovett.

2014

Stories from the Body #2 in collaboration with Agus Riyanto, and site-performance duet version with Alan Schacher of Unappeased, Melaka Arts and Performance (MAP) Festival.

Creative Development Residency, workshop and showcase with co-initiator Alan Schacher, Unappeased, penangpac. Invited collaborators: Aida Redza (dancer/choregrapher, Penang), Kobie Pongpassakorn (video artist, Bangkok), Robbie Avenaim (percussionist/robotics, Melbourne) and Victoria Hunt (dancer/choregrapher, Sydney), Penang, Malaysia, Australia Council Creative Asia Partnership.

Performed solo and trio version of Stories from the Body #1, Arts Island Festival, Undisclosed Territory #8 (Solo) and Bedog Arts Festival (Yogyakarta), with funding from Australia-Indonesia Institute. Co-devised and performed duet with Tony Yap, Bedog Arts Festival.

Curated and performed in Sound Bites #18, Living Room Series, Katoomba featuring Forenzics, Stephen Adams, Brkn Chip, Jerel Mani, Rex Mundi and Jo Truman.

Curated and performed in Sound Bites #17, Living Room Series, Katoomba featuring The Splinter Orchestra, David Sudmalis and Bortan.

Curated and performed in Sound Bites #16, Living Room Series, Faulconbridge featuring WOW Signal, Alan Schacher & Ash Baker.

Co-Deviser, performer & workshop co-leader with Alan Schacher, Cowra Internment Arts Project produced by Nikkei Australia and Mayu Kanamori; Cowra War Cemetery. 

Self-devising dancer and vocalist for De Quincey Co’s site-generated work Inner Garden

2013

Choreographic Space Residency grant by Critical Path contemplating mortality

Site-specific improvisational performances MAPPING Melbourne, Multicultural Arts Victoria

Melaka Arts & Performance (MAP) Festival: Collaborating dancer & vocalist, Naik-Naik, Cheryl Stock’s site-created performance; performed The Unappeased site-specific duet with Alan Schacher; led voice/body workshop & choreographed for Eulogy for the Living

Artist Residency Rimbun Dahan, with Alan Schacher “Hungry Ghost” festival, Hotel Penaga, Penang, Malaysia

Devised and performed De-Incarnate at Arts Island Festival, Indonesia 

2012

Duet Hungry Ghost, Dybbuk with Alan Schacher, night & daytime sites, MAP Festival

2012-2016 Ongoing curation of Sound Bites, improvisational performance event, Blue Mountains

2011

Research + Performance Showing on Hungry Ghost and Golem for One-Day Collaborations, Alan Schacher’s Articulate Project Space Residency

Impro Exchange ’11, Lab 1 with De Quincey Co, Critical Path

Artist Residency, Blacktown Arts Centre: Performance Diary of Blacktown

2010

Performed The Borrowed Language as part of MAP Festival’s Cerita Pendek, Australia-Malaysia Institute funding

Vocalist/composer for Binh Ta’s Yellow is not Yellow under CityMoon Productions.

 Impro Exchange '10, De Quincey Co, Critical Path

2009

Initiator, writer and performer of The Borrowed Language, an intra-lingual/cultural performance based on the theme unbelonging, was developed and showcased at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre with funding support from Arts NSW. Teamed with video artist Kobie Pongpassakorn, dramaturg Tess De Quincey and Co-composer/Production Manager Vic McEwan

Vocalist & composer for Junk Theory, big hART productions, 10 Days on the Island Festival

2008 

Composer for Junk Theory, big hART productions, Adelaide Festival

2007

Artist Residency at Bundanon, Arthur Boyd's Property

Vocalist, composer & workshop facilitator Junk Theory, big hART productions, Sydney Festival

2006

Actor in Fragments of Hong Kong, written by Katherine Thompson for ABC RN Airplay

Touch, Listen song & movement concert, South Gate Theatre, 798 Art District, Beijing, China 

Dancer, Dis-Ease with Alfira O’Sullivan & Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal, Indonesian Festival, Sydney

2005

Concert Series 21 Levels of Grieving for Boxing Day Tsunami victims, Bandung, Indonesia 

Performed song concert, Braga Festival, Bandung, Indonesia

Song & Dance Solo Concert Kenangan at The Actors Studio in KL, Malaysia

2004

Performed concert tour of Indonesia curated by Sawung Jabo: Surabaya, Solo, Yogyakarta, Bandung; led workshops

 Femalia (Tufa) 3-day performance at Mardi Gras Festival; Documentary by ABC TV Asia-Pacific

Sydney magazine (The SMH) interview published for People to watch in 2004

2003

The Prophecy (Tufa) at Sound Mix, Government House and MusiCairns Festival, Cairns 

Album launch Femalia (Tufa), Visual & Stage Director Iqbal Barkat, bassist Adrian Legg, keyboardist Didi Mudigdo, guitarist & flautist Justo Diaz at Bangarra Dance Theatre, Australia Council Music grant

ABC Radio National live-to-air concert Sound Quality programme produced by Cathy Peters

2002

Phoenix Love (Tufa) 2-day performance at The Studio, Sydney Opera House, in collaboration with visual/lighting projection by Iqbal Barkat, bassist George Xenikis and keyboardist Didi Mudigdo.

Live-to-air concert, SBS Alchemy Radio

2001

Independent launch of song/spoken word album, self-titled Tufa, Paddington Uniting Church

2000

Song and visual performance, Primevera Exhibition Opening, Museum of Contemporary Arts

1999 

Co-founded with David Stayte Tufa, a South-East Asian fusion visual, music theatrical group; debut performance with bassist George Xenikis and visual artists Del Kathryn Barton and Katthy Cavaliere, The Studio, Sydney Opera House