Glass Armour Performance
Glass Armour, a visual metaphor for inherited values and pride explores the paradox of protection. It prompts questions about the functional and psychological implications of protection, as the glass from which it is made simultaneously provides a sense of safety due to its thickness while posing potential harm to the bearer if ever shattered. The artist's embodiment within the Glass Armour reflects the heaviness of cultural legacies, unveiling the unseen emotional turmoil and prompting viewers to reflect on their own unseen battles.
Embedded in the Glass Armour are narratives of pride and downfall, depicted through handcrafted imagery of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, figures from the Chinese epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Despite their deification as guardian gods in Chinese culture, the reliefs on the backplate showcase their fatal flaws: pride and wrath, challenging conventional glorifications. The sculpture becomes a vehicle for exploring the unseen weight of cultural heritage, revealing the invisible forces that influence and burden individuals within the Asian diaspora.
This durational performance symbolises psychological and emotional struggles, mirroring personal experiences of isolation and pride. The artist’s embodiment and interaction with the glass sculpture is inspired by a personal anecdote of heartbreak and depression as a catalyst for a period of isolation and inability to reach out for help due to her sense of self-dignity; not wanting to be seen as weak. Reflecting on the experience, she came to explore pride as not the inverse of shame but the source of it.
There are many influences that we carry with us on a day to day basis without being fully aware of their weight on us. Glass Armour speaks to the cultural inheritance and pride that Asian diaspora carry with them oftentimes unaware of the impacts on them until a crucial moment of psychological or emotional decline. The Glass Armour is representative of the metaphysical burden of pride, seeing the armour on the artist and her blanching face as she labours under its weight, the performance reveals the heaviness of this invisible force.
Two Screen Projection, 15 minutes
Director: Will Suen
Cinematographer: Alexander Leeway
Grip: Kristian Bruneteau
Gaffer: Marcel Breed
Sound Recordist: Luke Fuller
1st Assistant Camera: Luke Rodely
2nd Assistant Camera: Melissa Medina
Videographer: Rhavin Banda
Assistant 1: Gerry Li
Assistant 2: Bonnie Huang
Assistant 3: Leanne Lee
