TV Show: Concubines and Swordswomen
Multimedia installation (two channel video, wood, bamboo, television sets, chairs, lacquer furnitures, plinths, enamel chinese urinal, Manchu horse hoof shoes, imperial food box, Chinese jade flower, tassel ornaments, porcelain figurines, imperial candelabra, wax, swords, figurine-themed vase, image and text print on vinyl)
Size variable
2024

TV Show: Concubines and Swordswomen is a multimedia installation that draws on MPF’s vast array of East Asian, particularly Chinese, antiques, replicas, and miscellaneous smalls. From cloisonnés and porcelains to swords wielded by Wuxia heroes and shoes worn by imperial concubines, these items resonate with familiarity, frequently depicted in palace-harem dramas and Wuxia-themed television shows. Reflecting on the shared Chinese immigrant experience, the work contemplates the act of watching culturally-specific television dramas at home, often through acquired DVD sets – a retreat into solitary entertainment devoid of the need for social and cultural integration. Even more, it is a cost-effective way to practise and maintain cultural ties and heritage.

TV Show: Concubines and Swordswomen expands beyond the intended use of the objects as television props and conceptualizes them as conduits for one to immerse in the worlds behind the television screen. The mundane act of watching TV is reimagined as an excursion that transcends time and geographical restraints. It gives the viewer agency to momentarily dissociate from present anxieties arising from cultural and social barriers experienced in the daily lives of the contemporary Chinese diaspora, and to seek comfort and enchantment in alternative extratemporal and fictional realms that paradoxically feel intimately known.

This work was created for the exhibition The Prop House: A Collection of One Million Objects, co-curated by Lisa Baldissera and Paul Wong, ran from May 17th - August 5th, 2024, at Griffin Art Projects, North Vancouver, Canada.