Stories from the Body #1
performance, participatory
Performance Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks
8 September 2022
a re-imagined hybrid entity of puyong and pontianak from the Malaysia folk-lore. all photos by James Horan.
Background
The Stories from the Body (SFTB) is a performance series of ongoing life work, which is the vehicle for re-tracing lineages that have been disrupted as a result of WeiZen’s ancestors’ migration journey over the last 100 years, from the South Fujian Province of China to Java, Singapore and Malaysia. The hybrid archetype in SFTB#1 is a re-imagined combination of puyong and pontianak from the Malaysia folk-lore. This work was adapted for Performance Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary to include public participation through handmade bellow-pipe objects.
First performed in Indonesia (2014), then at Woodford Academy The Blue Mountain's oldest surviving building (2015), and Ogijima Island as part of Setouchi Triennale Art Festival (2016). In 2019, SFTB#1 was expanded to include a suspended 3m X 1.2m steel, aluminium mesh sculpture for the Blue Mountains City Gallery.
For Performance Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary, SFTB#1 was re-adapted into a small-scale interactive piece for the foyer of Carriageworks. I made objects attaching the same black pipe material to hand-held bellows. Alan Schacher was the supporting artist bearing the pipe-bellow objects and offering them to members of the public.
