collaboration
have it both ways: sublime bronze SPF 50
2020
presented at Arm Gallery with Livien Yin. Self-tanning lotion and sunscreen. Image courtesy of Visitor Welcome Center.
“Have It Both Ways” uses tanning to reflect on what it means for white skin to present itself as brown skin. Against the backdrop of discriminatory immigration policies in the 1920’s, Coco Chanel’s tanned body rebranded brown skin as a new standard of beauty among white consumers. Since the early days of the trend, sunbathers have demonstrated a desire to appear more attractive by controlling their complexion–attaining a white that is not quite brown but tan. A white that hints at a life of leisure but remains free of the biases that govern non-white bodies.
• ARTFORUM “Los Angeles Critics’ Picks: No more land West” by Jake Yuzna
• KCRW “Art Insider: The human arm as an art gallery” by Lindsay Preston Zappas
press/tread
2019
video documentation from 4 hour live performance, 3 sets of clothing per artist
“Press/Tread” cycles through the ‘performance’ of etiquette in professional, public, and private settings. The artists change through three sets of clothing while pacing away then toward one another ad infinitum.
em dash
2018
video documentation from variable duration live performance, medium t-shirt
In “Em Dash,” the artists jointly enter and strain the capacity of a white t-shirt to inhabit shared positions of stillness. During the interaction, the shirt momentarily obstructs the separation between two individuals. The performance ends with the distended t-shirt laid on the ground as a sculptural document of the performance.
asymptote (cups)
2018
archival pigment prints
In the two photographs titled “Asymptote,” the artists stage and capture a fleeting moment of equilibrium between two unequal vessels. The subjects stand in for the volatile interactions between the external and the internal perceptions of one’s self.
asymptote (kettle)
2018
archival pigment prints
In the two photographs titled “Asymptote,” the artists stage and capture a fleeting moment of equilibrium between two unequal vessels. The subjects stand in for the volatile interactions between the external and the internal perceptions of one’s self.
no not always, no not never
2018
durational live performance, plexiglass
The performance “No, Not Always. No, Not Never.” draws on the artists’ personal backgrounds to examine the impact of internalized white supremacy on intimacy. The artists hold plexiglass between a misaligned kiss to confront the internalized preference for dating white people.