Surface Relations

Huang, Vivian L.

doi:10.1515/9781478023623

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Vivian L. Huang argues that the language of inscrutability does not limit one's accessibility to meaning; rather, it serves as a method of "reparative knowing," 36 writing, "An analytic of inscrutability can be understood as a kind of reparative surface reading, one that is attuned to the productive force of what can be sensed, including sensory negations in racial and queer forms." 37 By reinterpreting the poems' contents through a trans lens, Tsang exemplifies the subdued guesswork that is involved in uncovering trans histories from the past, while also highlighting the ways in which the language of inscrutability can offer alternative sources of knowledge production. Throughout her practice, Tsang also uses flexible interpretations of space, specifically "safe spaces" for trans people, to create inscrutable worlds that center trans sociality.…”

Section: Tactics Of Relationality Inscrutability and Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tactics of Virtual Memory and Trans Inscrutability in the Works of Wu Tsang

Kang

2024

median

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In her art and research, the artist Wu Tsang poses the question: “Whose voices are heard, whose are silenced?” By incorporating her own perspective as a trans person into her works, Tsang utilizes virtual media to reveal alternative interpretations of the past, and in turn, create new trajectories for the future. Her film Duilian specifically rewrites the story of Qiu Jin—a renowned Chinese feminist poet and revolutionary hero of the Qing dynasty—as a trans narrative. Set in a world that blurs global, temporal, and linguistic boundaries, the film merges historical research with imaginative thinking to uncover the trans stories that have been lost or hidden through time. Through an in-depth analysis of Duilian, this article will situate the film within Tsang’s larger oeuvre to demonstrate how the artist embodies Homay King’s concept of “virtual memory” and Vivian L. Huang’s notion of “inscrutability” to traverse the past, present, and future, continually implementing trans tactics as a means of re-historicization, safety, and survival.

show abstract

Section: Tactics Of Relationality Inscrutability and Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tactics of Virtual Memory and Trans Inscrutability in the Works of Wu Tsang

Kang

2024

median

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Choreographing Multiraciality: Mixed-Race Methods in North American Contemporary Dance

Shaffer

2023

Arts

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Multiracialism, or the concept of “mixed-race”, remains a key racial discourse within twenty-first-century North American societies. Scholarly and mainstream studies of multiracial people often highlight the function of speech in theorizing mixed-race experiences, where interviews or other first-person narratives resist racialized stereotypes and express complex multiracial identities. Yet these studies often overlook the body as a comparable analytical site, ignoring how the body’s mobilization—in dance, choreography, and everyday actions—might further nuance mixed-race subjecthood. My article emphasizes experimental dance and choreography as alternative methods for imagining multiracial subjects, where these body-based approaches reject both stereotypical depictions of multiracial people in mainstream media and “transparent” representations in interviews. Drawing on the concept of “opacity,” which describes unknowable, illegible difference, I propose that experimental dance enables the expression of “opaque” multiracial subjectivities. This article then offers a choreographic analysis of Glenn Potter-Takata’s Yonsei f*ck f*ck, an experimental dance that produces opacities for its performers, who are of mixed Japanese heritage. Through movement scores, stand-up comedy, and a re-created “late-night” talk show, the dance invites audiences to move beyond the desire to recognize, categorize, and “know” the mixed-race Asian American performer.

show abstract

Surface Relations

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Tactics of Virtual Memory and Trans Inscrutability in the Works of Wu Tsang

Tactics of Virtual Memory and Trans Inscrutability in the Works of Wu Tsang

Choreographing Multiraciality: Mixed-Race Methods in North American Contemporary Dance

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About