Description

Turns is a single channel video which explores power relations between cultural and personal parts of a socially constructed self. The video is displayed on a black monitor installed at knee-level on two low black tables. Framed through a red oval, two performers crouch tied back to back by their hair. The performers take turns pivoting in place, twisting their hair as it coils tightly, the tension bringing their heads together, and preventing them from continuing. As the performer turning passes the performer sitting still, the one kisses the other at the base of the neck.

Statement

"I myself cannot be the author of my own value, just as I cannot lift myself by my own hair."
—M. M. Bakhtin, Art and Answerability

In images of myself, I see two people.
The first I clearly recognize is me, but the second is a stranger:
Behind me is an Asian woman I don't know.

In Turns, I and a look-alike are bound to one another with each other's hair.
We are each other's Other half. With skin painted grey, we take turns turning.
We turn towards and away from each other, kissing each other, and binding ourselves more and more tightly.
We turn ourselves in circles and encircle ourselves.