Purge II
part of Unbroken Gestures,
a Willoughby City Council curated group exhibition, co-curated by Cassandra Hard-Lawrie and Faye Chen
Art Space on the Concourse, Chatswood
29 Aug - 29 Sept 2024
public performances on the 7th and 14th Sept 2024, 12pm-3pm
Above is the pre-performance image of Purge II: sculptural installation generated and modified in two 3-hour public performances, with butterfly pea flowers, turmeric root, cooked glutinous black rice, handmade paper by artist and Mandy Burgess, and blotting paper.
All photos, video and editing by Sam James.
about the work
There is something that we deeply hunger for when we live outside our own culture. We yearn to speak in our own tongue, and often push aside social etiquette when we do encounter someone who is conversant in it. The most common transference of this ‘cultural hunger’ is by way of food. It is this image that WeiZen attempts to convey and expand upon, in her enactment, through introspective and embodied ontological exploration.
Purge II is an open performance process which eventually takes on a participatory mode. This act of masticating a higher-than-normal quantity of food ingredients used in recipes from her home environment is akin to excavating her cultural memory body . The materials employed are turmeric root, butterfly pea flowers, cooked glutinous black rice, blotting papers, dowels, glass bottles and jars.
When a simple symbolic action is formalised, and repeated (continuously) over a sufficient duration, it can subtly transform the atmosphere and image, shifting its meaning-making, re-framing it and the surrounding space into something else. Accompanied by an altered consciousness in the performer, it affects the witnesses to the energetic changes, and a dynamic oscillation begins to take place. This phenomenon can facilitate the experience of deep emotions and insights, which are often ineffable, requiring the suspension of our usual assumptions regarding things.
Other artists who exhibited in Unbroken Gestures are Dacchi Dang, Shahroud Ghahani, Mehwish Iqbal, Marikit Santiago, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Jayanto Tan, Truc Truong and Katie Louise Williams
