2023
Performance/ Installation

0:08’50”



This performance focuses on monologues and uses the sounds of living objects. By establishing avocados growing in glass jars and describing fragile and shifting ecosystems for urban living and immigration, it explores the state of millennial life, the hostage of consumerism, and the need for spiritual lives for modern people.

https://wip2023.rca.ac.uk/events/visual-communication-how-to-plant-an-avocado-in-your-homehttps://linktr.ee/manifold_space

Live Performance Archive

Performance Archive
Video recording 
0:08’50”

Once I saw the avocado seeds set gift box in a Boutique, and there were samples that had grown up next to it. The huge seeds of the avocado caught my attention. But one sold for 50 pounds. So I decided to buy avocados from grocery shops and plant them by myself.

I have never observed the birth of life at such a quiet distance. It only takes a month for it to grow from a dormant and inactive state to a life connected to the outside world. However, I am already worried about their future. When I finish my graduate life next year, they might lose the room to grow.
Without water, they are vulnerable.

I have 7 sprouting plants and one of them has grown very tall, no different from the avocado gift set I saw in the store, or even better. 2 are still germinating in the bathroom, one is in the refrigerator, and the other two have stopped growing. Due to negligent care, they were accidentally exposed to dry air by me during the initial germination stage and then rooted. The tip gradually begins to blacken and stops developing normally. At first, I thought they would be able to come back to life like many plants, but as long as I put them back in the water, the results were not satisfactory.

Installation, Mixed Media, 100*100*150cm

Encoded Fragment

2022
Performance
0:19’24”

Encoded Fragments is a series of work that is finished or in progress, which uses the recollection of dreams as a tool to build a bridge of communication with the deeper self. The research uses sounds, performance, and diary-sourced poems as the vehicles of investigation.

Personal experiences shape the uniqueness of the individual, not only in terms of historically defining moments; but also in terms of long psychological constructions. A pattern of categorizing and organizing these memories is stored in the Electronic components, and changes in the inner structure are accomplished through the recurrence of memories on identical occasions, in order to help make sense of one's existence.

Dreams, as part of reality, frequently appear as nodes connecting the future to the past, appearing and disappearing so blurred that I sometimes can't tell if they existed, but when I capture them over time, curating them in a narrative deconstruction, they gradually constitute a larger pattern. The text attempts to find a balance and blend between perceptual cognition and scientific development by recording, organizing, and analyzing memories, and dreams; and also combining, and appropriating biology as well as other science subjects to approach the topic.

In these texts, some key archives - memories of my mother, identity, and dreams are repeatedly regurgitated. As a result, I create the opportunity to see my thoughts and actions from a distance, as a more objective spectator.




Performance Archive
Video Recording and Photos

0:19’24”


Script for the Monologe

A man drove to the jungle with his mother and wife to escape his life.
He spent a long time convincing them about the life they could create in the forest, in harmony, and in peace.
After a while, the man decided that life was too hard and drove away,
alone in the evening.
The mother went crazy, laughing every day and saying: I'm down! I'm down! I'm down!
The wife killed her mother-in-law first
and then started looking for the man.
Months later, she trudged to finally crawl out of the jungle, her hands rough, her hair disheveled, and her body stinking of filth.
She found the man, who by now was with another woman.
She stabbed the woman in the chest with a knife. Meanwhile, the man jumped in his car and drove into a pile of rubble, the last tire marks of the car disappearing in the jungle.

Feed me

2022
Performance
0:24’23”

In this project, we replicate the process of self-analysis by the objectification of personas. We utilized massive costumes to portray ourselves while simultaneously engaging with the social dynamics of each other.

Shannan and I create an analysis of life trivialities; as with many conversations between friends, we critique the traits of our personalities and the implications of self-judgment. We investigate further questions through this mutually pulling interaction, how do we absorb and process information? How can we communicate with one another? How do we live in a non-chasing state? How do we look within ourselves? How may we live more coherently and exist more fully?

Performance Archive
Video shooting and photos

Standing In the Waves

2023
Video/Performance

0:10’39”

This performance serves as a profound journey, where we embark on a shared exploration of our queer bodies, our lost indenties, and resonant memories of our hometown, fostering a deeper understanding about ourselves.

Movement unfolded against the tightness of my mind, a physical manifestation of disorientation. I hurriedly mingled, memories fragmenting like a hasty decision to escape an unraveling facade. Performative moment ignited a fierce wave, sinking into the depths before succumbing to a tranquil sleep.


https://brokenenglizh.wordpress.com/2023/09/14/yuqiang-chen/


Performance Archive
Film Screenshot and Live Performance