


I snuggle into the tomb bed from my wedding chamber my hair is the quilt the spirit-guiding streamer, embroidery on textiles, infrared camera, laptop, dimensions variable. Installation View at Group Exhibition “How Will You Ascertain Time?” curated by Hajra Haider Karrar & Sagal Farah, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, 30 April–27 May, 2022 |Documentation by Savvy Contemporary
“I snuggle into the wedding chamber from my tomb bed my shin is the lintel
I snuggle into the tomb bed from my wedding chamber my hair is the quilt the spirit-guiding streamer”
The couplet is embroidered on the hanging “spirit-guiding streamer” reminiscent of a typical Chinese funeral
decor, which contrasts the red veil that typically covers
the head of a Chinese bride. Refering to the ghost
marriage tradition that is still practiced in rural China,
the work aims to initiate a conjuring across disjointed
realms.
Entombment, is a particular necrotechnic that contributes to the establishment of the necroeconomic order
between the realm of yang, i.e. the realm of the living,
and the realm of yin, i.e. the realm of the (un)dead, by
transposing the physical actants of corpses into a realm
of virtuality—which, paradoxically, is constructed with
materials that nevertheless fall into the category of
yang. While the physical corpses are rendered virtual,
effective as assets of the realm of yang kept in pawn in
the realm of yin, their hauntology is testified as their
“carnal forms” vanish in themselves.
The performance installation delineates an underground
space of a tomb, in which the performer meets the
corpse-bride through a wedding make-up ritual that
cannot be captured by the medium of the infra-red
camera.
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I snuggle into the tomb bed from my wedding chamber my hair is the quilt the spirit-guiding streamer is informed by the concept of “necrotechnics” formulated in my research 🖇️ “The Corpse Not In Its Place”.


