Joe Zijian Zhou

In the sense of performativity, I seek to explore the ephemeral quality of performance as the performance ends and disappears, in the process that contains the improvisational consciousness and emotion. The representation of performance highly relies on the text description and image — whether photographic images or mental images in our brain. The debate arises and encircles the question of if performance becomes other than itself when the reproduction of it happens. The image and text thus construct a bridge connecting the spectator to the performance or the film.

I place my body, as a self-engaged artist, in the first section of the film work, to challenge the limitations of the gay body during the performing in the extreme and cold environment. The body enactments involved in the film reveal the navigation outside of heteronormative space and the formed invisible barrier between the queer space and the ‘mainstream of water’. For section two, I invite others within queer communities to perform in the film. The directing experience expands the view of the body forming during the communication due to the emotional resonance between me and others. In the third section, I introduce a group of undisciplined performers from the Chinese community in a peer-led workshop. This public health activity exists among the young generation in Mainland China. With critical thinking of the highly consistent experience, the film intends to unfold the socio-political structure and collective culture through the view of those who grew up in the ‘post’ Chinese society and to raise the question that how the individuals deal with the sense of collective belonging as they seek the unique identity.