Natalie Quan Yau Tso

Nothing Happened Here 呢度冇事發生

21

September 2022

21

Sep

2022

14

Oct 2022

Gallery 3

Nothing Happened Here 呢度冇事發生

Natalie Quan Yau Tso

21

September 2022

21

September

2022

14

October 2022

Gallery 3

In Nothing Happened Here 呢度冇事發生, the artist eats a substance made from a failed recipe of 腸粉 (steamed rice rolls) while singing and reciting public memories of the 2019 movement in Hong Kong. She feeds, recites, chews, sings, eats, spits and repeats simultaneously. Every word that passes through her throat was collected from the voices of Hong Kongers across online comments, lyrics and an anonymously written history book. The substance passes in and out of her mouth as Hong Kong’s political trauma corrodes in between bodies and societies. The performance traverses through conflicting feelings of self-censorship, protection from violence, grief, fear and refusal to accept the erasure of Hong Kong. This work asks: What does diaspora mean when place and culture is being erased from afar? How can a body become an instrument of anti-erasure amidst cultural cleansing?

Exhibition documented by Teagan Ramsay.

In Nothing Happened Here 呢度冇事發生, the artist eats a substance made from a failed recipe of 腸粉 (steamed rice rolls) while singing and reciting public memories of the 2019 movement in Hong Kong. She feeds, recites, chews, sings, eats, spits and repeats simultaneously. Every word that passes through her throat was collected from the voices of Hong Kongers across online comments, lyrics and an anonymously written history book. The substance passes in and out of her mouth as Hong Kong’s political trauma corrodes in between bodies and societies. The performance traverses through conflicting feelings of self-censorship, protection from violence, grief, fear and refusal to accept the erasure of Hong Kong. This work asks: What does diaspora mean when place and culture is being erased from afar? How can a body become an instrument of anti-erasure amidst cultural cleansing?

Natalie Quan Yau Tso

Natalie Tso’s practice investigates bodily boundaries as metaphors for political boundaries through sculptures, installations and performances. She often performs acts driven by embodied knowledge including cleansing, eating and peeling that activate bodily dispersions.