STUDIO JL

Video Projection Installation 

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My Body, My Poetry

Year of production: 2022

Running Time: 01:16

Color / Sound 

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MY BODY, MY POETRY

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The focus of My Body, My Poetry is the exploration of my Chinese culture with a focus on themes relating to loneliness, love and gender empowerment. The work employs photographing and capturing video footage of body movement portrayed in a romantic setting with the use of objects from Chinese culture such as flowers that symbolise innocence and purity that ties elegance and reverence to femininity. Contrasting, the project uses masks and dancing choreography from traditional mask dancing in Sichuan China to convey masculinity to the stereotyped female character that introduce these different characters to portray loneliness within.

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The focus of this work is to subvert traditional Chinese gender roles and expectations through a dual-channel video installation in which two projections appear to converse with one another. The first video portrays the woman in her most delicate, composed, and traditionally feminine form, while the second presents her embodying a masculine role. Though contrasting in nature, the two projections are in dialogue—challenging and reflecting one another.

In Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love, Mrs. Chan is depicted as elegant and restrained—a woman bound by her society’s notions of propriety and decorum. Similarly, in Yang Fudong’s films, women are often rendered as beautiful, graceful figures valued primarily for their aesthetic presence. There is a necessary honesty in confronting both female desire and the objectification of the female body. Drawing inspiration from Yang’s dreamlike meditations on Chinese culture and identity—rich in colour and artificial landscapes that blur reality—my concept seeks to create a poetic video piece seen through the lens of the female gaze.

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Rather than isolating one aspect of Chinese culture, the work embodies its essence as a whole, weaving together fragments of tradition and symbolism. The orchid, for example, represents innocence, purity, and elegance which are qualities often associated with femininity. In contrast, the use of traditional Chinese masks and mask dancing introduces a sense of masculinity, counterbalancing the fragility and delicacy often imposed on women. Together, these elements merge to question and reframe the dualities of gender within Chinese cultural identity.

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My objective for this project began with the intention of capturing photographs for a personal series. However, I soon realised the potential to expand it into a moving image piece, transforming the concept into a short abstract film that communicates my ideas through a poetic visual language.

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My process involved researching the symbolic meanings of flowers in Chinese culture and their connections to womanhood, incorporating these motifs into the work to evoke themes of gender empowerment within an aesthetically stylised setting. I also visited the ACMI Light exhibition (2022), which deepened my understanding of how lighting shapes mood and atmosphere. This experience informed my approach to using continuous lighting in a studio environment to create a visually rich and emotive tone.

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Further inspiration came from the traditional Sichuan mask-changing dance (Bian Lian), in which performers pull down concealed masks to instantly transform their faces—each colour representing a distinct emotion: red for bravery and loyalty, blue for sadness, and so on. I hand-painted similar masks for my model to wear while performing aggressive, expressive movements to channel masculine energy. Through this performance, I explored themes of identity, cultural displacement, and self-reconciliation.

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The blue mask symbolised my sadness and sense of isolation stemming from feeling “white-washed” or disconnected from my heritage. In contrast, the red and orange tones represented courage and strength—my attempt to reclaim and celebrate my cultural roots. This project became a way of acknowledging that embodying both Chinese and Western identities is not a contradiction but rather a unique balance, even if it challenges traditional expectations of preserving cultural purity across generations.

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