WeiZen Ho
Dying - Differently, Possibly | 2022
bio:
WeiZen devises performances and participatory works that occupy the spaces of uncertainty between performance, ritual and installation. She investigates methods of accessing the memory body through a combination of image concept sketching, vocal-bodywork, improvisation techniques and the mimicry of spirit possession. Perceiving spirit possession rituals as socially transformative and empowering, her performance structures employ accoutrements and imagery work that locate and coalesce relationships between body, voice, sound and site.Selected performances/projects include: Amulet Body (National Portrait Gallery 2021), Australia-Taiwan Digital Residency (Critical Path, HORSE and Bare Feet Dance Theatre 2020-21), The Invisibles (360VR Theatre Kantanka 2021), The Subtle Beings (Articulate project space 2018), Stories from the Body series (Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia 2014-18), artist/curator SoundBitesBody (Blue Mountains NSW 2012-16), director TUFA visual/music group (Australia, Indonesia, China 1999-2004).
"Dying - Differently, Possibly" 2022
Following a 2-year intimate engagement with local residents exploring attitudes to death and dying, WeiZen presents a shopfront dialogue. Examining the interplay between the inaudible with the public, and the visible with the private, participants are invited to sit inside with her in a one-on-one conversation. Outside, in a familiar ritual of waiting in line, the interaction is witnessed but not heard by the audience and passers-by. Participants are asked to offer a written question or contemplation on death and dying. The accumulated texts will then be displayed as an installation within the shop. This project has been supported by Create NSW – Small Project Grants (Quick Response).
statement:
WeiZen draws inspiration from the premise that human living is performed and performative; to activate this process through the vocal-body and its memory, contextualised within its geocultural history. As an open-disciplinary performance deviser and vocalist since 1999, she has expanded into the discipline of spatial-body relationship through choreography, via BodyWeather and Pancha Tanmantra 5 Element principles. In 2010, WeiZen began formalising a spirit-corporeal vocabulary generated through contemplation on mortality. Building a line of inquiry through research residencies and witnessing of rituals, while devising for locations across Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan and Thailand, she secured a research grant which led her to female shamanry communities in Sabah (Malaysia) and Hanoi (Vietnam). This culminated in a 2018 participatory performance-installation, The Subtle Beings. Increasingly, she includes participatory and/or material installation to capture the traces, the aftermath of a performance.
79 Angus Ave
