Queering Now 2021: Dreamality

‘Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?’

In physical isolation, social distancing and the deep impact of the pandemic, Queering Now 酷兒鬧 2021 returns in a digital format, proposing a magical queer-topia, and an other-worldly journey “home”.

Queering Now 酷兒鬧 2021 presents outstanding works by 16 Sino queer artists, showcasing a queer dreamality through a celebration of the visual, sound, desire, fantasy, sweat, queer gazing, questioning, tears and cultural reflection in the TechnoSphere. Queering Now 酷兒鬧 invites audiences to travel on the wing of queer longing, rebellion and (re)imagination.

Directed by artist-curator Whiskey Chow, Queering Now 酷兒鬧 proposes radical care and solidarity, retreating from censorship and the white gaze. Queering Now 酷兒鬧 aims to build up a connection and playground for outstanding queer Sino/ Asian diaspora artists, to hold their own agency via their creative works.

The artists are April Lin 林森, Bang Bang 邦邦, Chenta Tsai 蔡承達 (aka. putochinomaricon), LI YILEI, Lu Yang 陸揚, Mathis Zhang 張杭, Ming Wong 黃漢明, Scotty So 蘇港鴻, Sin Wai Kin 單慧乾 (fka Victoria Sin), Su Hui-Yu 蘇匯宇, Whiskey Chow, Xiao Lu 肖鲁, Yarli Allison 林雅莉, Yau Ching 游靜, Yu Cheng-Ta 余政達 and Zhu Dansiyu 朱丹絲語.

Led and Curated by Whiskey Chow, with Digital Director Anne Duffau and Producer Ruth Holdsworth

Queering Now 2021: Dreamality has been funded by Arts Council England, and is commissioned by Chinese Arts Now. It is supported by Home Live Art & the Centre for Contemporary East Asian Cultural Studies (CEACS) University of Nottingham, and is presented in partnership with Mimosa House.

Available from 29 May to 12 June is an online programme of eight short films by artists April Lin, Lu Yang, Mathis Zhang, Ming Wong & Yu Cheng-Ta, Su Hui-Yu, Yarli Allison and Yau Ching. These queer and cross-generational artists from the Sino diaspora variously explore displacement, death and in-betweenness, and the artists’ different approaches to self-empowerment and belonging. The films will be introduced by Queering Now Director Whiskey Chow and Digital Director Anne Duffau.

On 5 June, artist talk by Zhu Dansiyu, hosted by Whiskey Chow.

On 6 June Xiao Lu, China’s foremost feminist performance artist, in conversation with Whiskey Chow. They reflect on inter-generational performance practice and share video documentation of their past work. The talk will be translated live in Chinese and English.

From 5 to 12 June is a showcase on Queering Now’s Instagram of 2D work made specially for Queering Now by artists Bang Bang @bangbangrudy and Zhu Dansiyu @zhudansiyu. They appropriate traditional Chinese aesthetics and techniques to depict queer desire through the queer gaze.

The programme concludes on 12 June with 60 minutes of new commissioned digital performance, hosted by Whiskey Chow, with work from five artists – Sin Wai Kin (fka Victoria Sin), LI YILEI, Chenta Tsai, Scotty So and Whiskey Chow. The performances will be followed by a talk between Chow and E-J Scott, fashion historian and curator of the Museum of Transology.

All events are FREE with a suggested donation of £5. Booking links coming soon.

(Image credit: Whiskey Chow, The Moon is Warmer than the Sun, photo by Greg Goodale; presented in Queering Now 2020, with the support of Arts Council England, Chinese Arts Now, Live Art UK and Diverse Action)