Sungjae Lee

This course introduces the student to a wide spectrum of performance forms including performance in every day life, rituals, folk forms, artists' actions, experimental dance and theatre, activist performance, and intermedia forms. Students learn the history of performance practices, explore theoretical issues , and develop individual and collaborative works. Primarily a beginner's course but open to all levels of students.

The slogan “the personal is political” sounds obvious today. Artworks rooted in diverse identities, cultures, and stories have been actively produced, and some have received global attention. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Ana Mendieta, and contemporary auto-fiction writers such as Ocean Vuong, Brontez Purnell, and Saeed Jones. It's empowering yet confusing since they are mostly sad, tragic, and heartbreaking. Should our lived experiences be traumatic since they are sellable? What is the less exploitative way to materialize our bodies and narratives in art practices? How can we talk about joy and happiness when we haven't learned culturally? In this course, we will investigate the power of identities and personal narratives, and safe ways of sharing them in art, with the aim of acknowledgment, grief, healing, and eventually celebration. This multidisciplinary course explores the wide spectrum of identities and autobiographical stories in visual art, literature, pop culture, and social media. Anchored on the conversation on how their identities and narratives have been consumed in the market, we will research how to process, reframe, and visualize our pain in order to picture a better future--referencing José Esteban Muñoz’s queer futurity. Local artists and curators will visit the class and share their experiences of materializing stories for artworks or exhibitions. Along with assignments such as readings and research writings, students develop, produce, and present their live performance pieces as midterm and final projects.