Borrowed Speech: Giving an Account of Another with Wu Tsang's Full Body Quotation

Lee, Summer Kim

doi:10.1353/asa.2021.0036

Cited by 9 publications

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“…Full body quotation brings our attention to how one cannot give an account of oneself without giving an account of another." 32 In this performance, Tsang is not attempting to become a stand-in who must "speak" for Baggs; instead, "Tsang makes room in her body for others, as the host who works at the task of being simultaneous and proximal." 33 Through this tactic, she demonstrates her indebtedness to those around her (whether physically or virtually), connecting the self to the other through a process of embodied translation.…”

Section: Tactics Of Relationality Inscrutability and Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…32 In this performance, Tsang is not attempting to become a stand-in who must "speak" for Baggs; instead, "Tsang makes room in her body for others, as the host who works at the task of being simultaneous and proximal." 33 Through this tactic, she demonstrates her indebtedness to those around her (whether physically or virtually), connecting the self to the other through a process of embodied translation. Not only does this approach represent the possibilities of trans relationality, in which connections are formed between and within bodies, but it also enhances both the referent's and host's abilities to remain inscrutable.…”

Section: Tactics Of Relationality Inscrutability and Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Kang

2024

median

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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.

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Section: Tactics Of Relationality Inscrutability and Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

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Escape is Such a Thankful Word

2024

The Only Way Out

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The introduction traces the American fascination with the story of escape. It argues that, in the United States, escape emerges as both a white fantasy desire for freedom, as well as Black and queer practices of survival and coalition. Using a Black studies framework, the introduction explores the episodic, escapist, and Afrofuturist aspects of the escape story—from (anti)slave narratives to contemporary visionary fiction. Escape emerges as an episodic structure that is activated by the reader, with the potential to push against the agential individual narrative structure of generic escape.

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The Repetitions of Henry “Box” Brown

2024

The Only Way Out

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Engaging the work of artists Tony Kushner, Glenn Ligon, and Wilmer Wilson IV, chapter 1 explores contemporary artistic manifestations of The Narrative in the Life of Henry “Box” Brown. The chapter argues that, while all three artists attempt to link Brown’s story of individual escape to ideas of the collective, Ligon and Wilson replace the demand for Brown’s constant mobility in the archive with an option for rest and reprieve in the artistic interval. The chapter explores the archival work of the escape and its circulation in the present by engaging Tony Kushner’s The Henry Box Brown Play; Glenn Ligon’s To Disembark, Narratives, and Runaways; and Wilmer Wilson IV’s Henry Box Brown Forever.

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Borrowed Speech: Giving an Account of Another with Wu Tsang's Full Body Quotation

Cited by 9 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

Escape is Such a Thankful Word

The Repetitions of Henry “Box” Brown

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