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:

2024 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, Immersive - New York Live Art Tour 8;

The Purge, material: sweet pea flower, fresh turmeric, blotting paper, bamboo straw located on public footpath, Grace Exhibition Space, part of Immersive - New York Live Art Tour 8, Manhattan;

…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;

SFTB #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, performance with 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, Soft Centre 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 Differently Possibly, socio-cultural landscape residency, Cementa Inc., Kandos, NSW. This research and development period will contribute towards a durational and participatory performance art structure for Cementa Festival 2022.

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

2019 Sep A Kind of Divination, duet with A.Schacher, Willoughby Biennale The Tenacious Realm, Chatswood.

2019 Jul-Aug 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, devising for sound, movement and visual artists, Splinter Magic 2019, Tempe Jets, Tempe.

2019 Mar-Apr 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.

2019 Mar Developing and performing for sites at Gam Troi Valley in Lam Son, Dao Xuan Festival, Hoa Binh Province, Vietnam curated by Dao Anh Khanh.

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 Nov 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.

2018 Nov  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. 

2018 Sept  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

2018 June  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.

2018 Mar  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 been 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 Nov  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 was presented by Julie Vulcan in absentia as part of Critical Path's Interchange Festival .

2017 Oct/Nov  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.

2017 Sept/Oct  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.

2017 Jul  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

2017 June  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)

2017 Apr-May  Sound, text and vocal designer for Joshua Pether's Monster, Yirramboi - First Nations Arts Festival, Melbourne

2016 Sept  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

2016 July  Invitation to perform for the Asian Performing Arts Market, part of Setouchi Triennale 2016 Restoration of the Sea.

2016 Apr Duet performance with Alan Schacher, Cultural Mobilty commissioned by Modern Art Project's Exhibition MAPSPACE, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre

2016-2018 Mar  Recipient of Australia Council's Arts Projects For Individuals and Groups 2015 To Study & Develop Performances, Interpreted & Reimagined of Asian Animistic & Shamanistic Rituals. This project aims to finish by March 2018.

2016 Mar  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.

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

2016 Feb 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 Dec 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

2015 Nov 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.

2015 Oct Participant and improvisatory performer in De Quincey Co’s Impro-Exchange Lab 2, led by Frank Van de Ven

2015 Sept 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.

2015 May 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.

2015 Feb 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.

2015 Jan Co-devised and performed with Alan Schacher on-site, Palimpsest #1, Woodford Academy, Blue Mountains. Curated by Sarah Breen-Lovett.

2014 Nov Performed solo, Stories from the Body #2 and site-performance duet version of Unappeased, Melaka Arts and Performance (MAP) Festival.

2014 Oct Creative Development Residency, workshop and showcase with co-initiator Alan Schacher, Unappeased, penangpac, Malaysia, with funding from Australia Council Creative Asia Partnership. Invited collaborators: Aida Redza (dancer/choregrapher, Penang), Kobie Pongpassakorn (video artist, Bangkok), Robbie Avenaim (percussionist/robotics, Melbourne) and Victoria Hunt (dancer/choregrapher, Sydney).

2014 Aug 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.

2014 July Curated and performed in Sound Bites #18, Living Room Series, Katoomba featuring Forenzics, Stephen Adams, Brkn Chip, Jerel Mani, Rex Mundi and Jo Truman.

2014 June Curated and performed in Sound Bites #17, Living Room Series, Katoomba featuring The Splinter Orchestra, David Sudmalis and Bortan.

2014 May Curated and performed in Sound Bites #16, Living Room Series, Faulconbridge featuring WOW Signal, Alan Schacher & Ash Baker.

2014 March Co-Deviser, performer & workshop co-leader with Alan Schacher, Cowra Internment Arts Project produced by Nikkei Australia and Mayu Kanamori; Cowra War Cemetery. 

2014 Feb 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

2013 Dec Site-specific improvisational performances MAPPING Melbourne, Multicultural Arts Victoria

2013 Nov 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

2013 Aug Artist Residency Rimbun Dahan, with Alan Schacher “Hungry Ghost” festival, Hotel Penaga, Penang, Malaysia

2013 July Performed solo, De-Incarnate at Arts Island Festival, Indonesia 

2012 Nov Duet Hungry Ghost, Dybbuk with Alan Schacher, night & daytime sites, MAP Festival

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

2011 Oct Research + Performance Showing on Hungry Ghost and Golem for One-Day Collaborations, Alan Schacher’s Articulate Project Space Residency

2011 May Impro Exchange ’11, Lab 1 with De Quincey Co, Critical Path

2011 Artist Residency, Blacktown Arts Centre: Performance Diary of Blacktown

2010 Nov Performed The Borrowed Language as part of MAP Festival’s Cerita Pendek, Australia-Malaysia Institute funding

2010 July Vocalist/composer for Binh Ta’s Yellow is not Yellow under CityMoon Productions.

2010 May 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

2009 Mar 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 Dec Artist Residency at Bundanon, Arthur Boyd's Property

2007 Jan Vocalist, composer & workshop facilitator Junk Theory, big hART productions, Sydney Festival

2006 Dec Actor in Fragments of Hong Kong, written by Katherine Thompson for ABC RN Airplay

2006 Oct Touch, Listen song & movement concert, South Gate Theatre, 798 Art District, Beijing, China 

2006 Jan Dancer, Dis-Ease with Alfira O’Sullivan & Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal, Indonesian Festival, Sydney

2005 Jan Concert Series 21 Levels of Grieving for Boxing Day Tsunami victims, Bandung, Indonesia 

2005 Jan Performed song concert, Braga Festival, Bandung, Indonesia

2005 May Song & Dance Solo Concert Kenangan at The Actors Studio in KL, Malaysia

2004 June Performed concert tour of Indonesia curated by Sawung Jabo: Surabaya, Solo, Yogyakarta, Bandung; led workshops

2004 Feb Femalia (Tufa) 3-day performance at Mardi Gras Festival; Documentary by ABC TV Asia-Pacific

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

2003 Sept The Prophecy (Tufa) at Sound Mix, Government House and MusiCairns Festival, Cairns 

2003 May 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 Oct 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.

2002 Sept Live-to-air concert, SBS Alchemy Radio

2001 Sept 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