temperance

my 1st tiny letter to you, september 2020

temperance playlist: instrumental, worldly, beats for daydreaming, or cleaning, or while reading this letter.

a clip that moved me: the narration (in cantonese) is a story about a feet-less bird. It only touches the ground once in its lifetime, that's when it is time to die.

SPECIAL THANKS:

I am eternally grateful to 신 선 영 辛善英 Sun Yung Shin, who held this writing and edited them with me. Pay her for speaking engagement, teaching, her books, her presence. Her absence will make you question what you rarely think of or talk about. Read this and follow this.

Peng Wu 吴朋 has been a key advisor and graphic designer for this tiny project of mine. He is an artist and an immigrant who has been stuck in China (for almost a year) because all visa appointments are suspended due to further notice. You might’ve visited his exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Peng also loves plants, and started this project while in China.

If it’s not for the initial conversation with Marcus Young 楊墨 and Laura Levinson, and Laura’s diligent notetaking of my chaotic ideas, I would not find the courage to turn those ideas into this thing you are reading. Laura is a movement and performance artist, and also a space-holder for this. Marcus is a behavioral and social practice artist who I learn from constantly about grace, courage, and complexity, you might’ve stumbled upon his sidewalk poetry on your walk to see sunrise.

Thank you to Don’t You Feel It Too? (started by Marcus Young 楊墨), a group and a revolution I have the honor and pleasure to cross path in 2012 as a college student. I have learned much about my inhibition and daring by asserting my body dancing in public. Anyone can do it.

This project has been selected to participate in “Art in This Present Moment,” an initiative by the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation also supported by the McKnight Foundation. I’m honored to join several Minnesota artists in creating work that describes this moment in time from my artistic perspective. For updates on Instagram, follow the hashtag: #ArtInThisMoment and the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation at @spmfoundation.