Four Quadrants of the Sky: Eelyn Lee

15 Sep-14 Oct 2023

PV 14 Sep 2023, 6-8pm

Four Quadrants of the Sky, 2023. Credit: Courtesy of the Elyn Lee and Bloc Projects

Overview

Referring to the ‘four images’—the custodians of each cardinal direction (North, South, East and West) in Chinese celestial thinking—the second cycle has been a year-long investigation on personal and cultural experiences through processes of divination and cosmologies. Of mixed Hong Kong and English heritage, Eelyn spent her formative years in and around her family’s Chinese restaurants in the Midlands. Those environments clearly buoy this cycle’s work on the collaborative articulation of ‘embodied knowledges’. Reaching beyond conscious memories or narratives and tapping into movement and sensory realms, what else are we storing in our bodies? What do they tell us about homeland, selfhood and legacies of unbelonging? The artist has been co-creating four new mythical characters alongside a core group of UK-based Hong Kongers that newly constellate diasporic identity and becoming. The results of this work will be presented in an immersive installation comprising scenes of the characters, a soundscape and a display of the four costumes.

Four Quadrants of the Sky collaborators include: 

Performers: Clara Cheung, Jan-Ming Lee, Angela YT Chan, Tala Lee Turton
Choreographer: Jan-Ming Lee
Costume & Set Designer: Christine Ting-Huan 挺歡 Urquhart
Costume Assistant: Thu Truong
Cinematographer: Jim Wraith
Focus Puller: Ai Narapol
Gaffer: Anh Do
Costume & Set Assistant: Shania Simpson
Make-Up: Kinga Dworkin
Curated by Sunshine Wong
Production still by Juan de Leon-Padmore