The Making of Meridian: Performance Addresses Relationships, Aging, and Social Constructs at 27 Yard Tomorrow (Oct 29)

The Beijingers | Oct 28, 2017 5:00 pm | Add a comment | 1057 reads

The pressure of expectations and assumptions for any member of society is often inevitable. The set of rules and constructs that guide and teach us also draw often-strict lines and sway our choices. If a woman in her early 20s is often expected to be adventurous and carefree, by her late 20s she "should" have to have a respected job and a stable relationship. While the struggle of complying with regulations (or risk being an outcast) is present for both men and women, the latter often feel a more personal and intrusive attention or a need for control.

Emerging from the creative minds of the Transmigrant Flow art collective, a synthesis of media, ideas, and experiences is coming together under a showcase called Meridian. The art event is built upon stories and opinions of real women exploring what it's like to create meaningful relationships, get older, and be pressured to start a family. It incorporates dance, live sculpture, photography, and storytelling. We spoke to one of the creators, Kassy Lee, about the purpose of Meridian, underlying causes for the issues women encounter, and what makes her write poetry.

The Beijinger: Meridian is untangling the troubles and issues women encounter while looking at it through the eyes of the woman. Was there an event or situation that triggered the need to explore this topic?
Kassy: Meridian is a showcase of photography, live sculpture, storytelling, and dance to explore how women challenge, evade, and embrace the passing of time in their lives. Transmigrant Flow is an art collective based in Beijing who is organizing this event. Transmigrant Flow is made up of three women, including myself, and this was a topic that we wanted to explore for a couple of reasons. Over the past year, we've dealt with events in our lives that have made us think about the grand scheme of things: what does it mean to get older, get into and out of serious relationships, deal with the passing of a loved one?. The three of us are also in our twenties, and when you're this age – as a woman, in particular – you start to feel these pressures to get married, have kids, and settle down. Men certainly also experience these pressures, but for a woman this pressure feels like a pressure directly on your own body and identity, to become a mother, to pass into a different life stage. In China, in particular, there's a pressure to not be a "leftover woman," so all these sorts of ideas were swirling around in our heads when we started the project.

TBJ: There is a great variety of different media used in Meridian: from performance and dance to photography and storytelling. What do you think it will bring to the show?
K: For Meridian, we want to provide a kaleidoscopic view of how women experience the passage of time and using multiple media allows us to tell a fuller story. The making of Meridian is super cool, we started with 27 women who all wrote us a story, poem, or essay about what "the passage of time" meant in their life. So, all the mixed media art has one source: the individual stories of 27 individual women. The photographs, the painting, the dancing, and the singing all takes its inspiration from the stories we collected from these 27 women.

TBJ: How did you find and choose the artists to participate in Meridian?
K: For the 27 women who are really the center point of Meridian, we put out an open call on our WeChat platform for diverse women to send in their stories about how they felt about the passage of time. We also asked some personal contacts who we thought would provide a unique perspective for the work including issues around fertility, divorce, death, and more. The photographer, Phillip Baumgart, is a good friend of Transmigrant Flow and has worked with us individually on other photo projects. He's an amazing photographer, and we wanted to help share his art with the Beijing community. The performance piece is organized by James Sserwadda who approached us early on in the process about a potential collaboration. He also brought on board Enkhsaikhan, a singer from Mongolia, and Kaya Richardson, an American performance artist.

TBJ: You are not only an organizer but an artist yourself: your printed and spoken poetry has been traveling around Beijing for quite a while. What issues do you like to poke in your own written word?
K: I explore the narratives of people of color living through the historical and ongoing process of globalization, the languages our tongues speak, and the trauma our bones know as a result of wars, colonialism, and migration. I write poems about interpersonal relationships and the search for love, justice, meaning and self in our intermixed and hybridized global society.

TBJ: For those who only read the beginning and the end, describe Meridian in five words.
K: Sometimes, the abyss looked into her (technically 6 words, but hope it's okay).

We didn't scold Kassy for the extra word since they simply work together well. Whether to hear stories to relate to, or make long-lasting connections, Meridian will serve as a medium for a meaningful Sunday afternoon. The event is tailored for all ages, genders, political ideologies, and ice cream preferences. Head to 27 Yard at 2pm. Get your tickets here (RMB 80-100).