Performances: Hairpin Beneath by Zishi Han & Wei Yang
Mar 13–22, 2025
Zishi Han and Wei Yang, Hairpin Beneath, 2023-24, video still. Courtesy the artists
Thu, Mar 13, 2025 at 6pm followed by an opening reception
Fri, Mar 14, 2025 at 4pm
Sat, Mar 15 at 4pm
Thu, Mar 20 at 4pm
Fri, Mar 21 at 4pm
Sat, Mar 22 at 4pm
RSVP
Each performance has a capacity of 30 viewers. RSVP is first come, first served. You will be notified if you are on the waitlist. Please arrive a few moments before your scheduled performance to check in at the front desk.
In Practice: Zishi Han & Wei Yang
Zishi Han and Wei Yang will present a new phase of their ongoing collaborative research project into historical Chinese homoerotic literature, intertwining multiple narratives that explore queer existences in China and of Chinese diaspora. Emerging from their shared interests in the power dynamics inherent in desire and intimacy, the artists’ point of departure is their own translation of the late Ming dynasty anthology of homoerotic stories 弁而釵 (Biàn ér chāi) by the pseudonymous "The Moon-Heart Master of the Drunken West Lake,” the title of which suggests the action of a man removing his ceremonial headgear and donning a woman's hairpin. Han and Yang’s performance-and-video works loosely interpret the text’s storylines to dwell amidst the blurry boundary between the fictional and the biographical, while drawing on a variety of Chinese historical and contemporary cultural practices, such as poetry, Chinese Opera, literati landscape painting, Danmei literature, C-pop and reality TV shows.
Performance collaborators to be announced.
These performances at SculptureCenter are complemented by co-organized programming off-site at Asia Art Archive in America on Fri, Feb 21, 2025 and Wed, Mar 19, 2025.