Queering Now 2021: DREAMALITY A Programme Of Films, Talks & Performance Begins 29 May

After the pandemic-induced blurring of fantasy and reality, Queering Now 酷兒鬧2021: DREAMALITY responds with a magical digital queer-topia of films, talks and performances, curated by London-based performance artist and Chinese Drag King, Whiskey Chow.

This year's programme gives a platform to the marginalised voices of the Sino/Asian queer diaspora in the West. Retreating from censorship, the imperatives of western consumption and the eroticisation of Asian queer bodies by the white gaze, Queering Now sees 16 outstanding artists explore their relationship with cultural heritage, identity and gender politics.

The artists are April Lin, Bangbang Rudy, Chenta Tsai, LI YILEI, Lu Yang, Mathis Zhang, Ming Wong, Scotty So, Sin Wai Kin (aka Victoria Sin), Su Hui-Yu, Whiskey Chow, Xiao Lu, Yarli Allison, Yau Ching, Yu Cheng-Ta and Zhu Dansiyu.

Whiskey Chow says: "The featured artists share international backgrounds and diasporic experience. They let us reflect on our relationship with Chinese cultural heritage when we live in the West, when we are in-between. They confront cultural taboos, play with stereotypes and claim back the gaze. They visualise the non-binary identity by mastering their digital body, they create their own narrative and agency for placing memories, death and themselves."

Available from 29 May to 12 June is an online programme of eight short films by artists April Lin, Lu Yang, Mathis Zhang, Ming Wong & Yu Cheng-Ta, Su Hui-Yu, Yarli Allison and Yau Ching. These queer and cross-generational artists from the Sino diaspora variously explore displacement, death and in-betweenness, and the artists' different approaches to self-empowerment and belonging. The films will be introduced by Whiskey Chow and Queering Now Digital Director Anne Duffau..

On 5 June, artist Zhu Dansiyu talks to Whiskey Chow.

On 6 June Xiao Lu, China's foremost feminist performance artist, talks to Whiskey Chow. They reflect on inter-generational performance practice and share video documentation of their past work. The talk will be translated live in Chinese and English.

From 5 to 12 June is a showcase on Queering Now's Instagram of 2D work made specially for Queering Now by artists Bangbang Rudy @bangbangrudy and Zhu Dansiyu @zhudansiyu. They appropriate traditional Chinese aesthetics and techniques to depict queer desire through the queer gaze.

The programme concludes on 12 June with 60 minutes of new performance, hosted by Whiskey Chow, with work from five artists - Sin Wai Kin (aka Victoria Sin), LI YILEI, Chenta Tsai, Scotty So and Whiskey Chow. The performances will be followed by a talk between Chow and E-J Scott, fashion historian and curator of the Museum of Transology.

Chinese Arts Now is the UK's leading platform for British Chinese artists working across artforms. It produces and curates high-quality art that is diverse, vibrant and tells Chinese stories in contemporary and innovative ways.

Listing information follows.

www.chineseartsnow.org.uk
www.whiskeychow.com

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