Videos 01-03c, “The Marriage Ceremony,” series of 6 GIFs and sound art, 2021-2022. “The Marriage Ceremony” reimagines the different ceremonies in Chinese marriage tradition and creates a version that challenges patriarchal ideas of gender roles by using drag, lighting studio, and performance. Furthermore, the work explores private and public through highlighting traditionally private ceremonies and heightening the performance with the spotlight. The series should be seen together in one space, with the sound interacting together.
01. “The Unveiling Ceremony,” GIF with Sound, Fall 2021. This work questions who should be unveiled and disrupts roles the bride and groom typically follow.
02. “The Tea Ceremony,” set
a. “The Tea Ceremony, GIF, Fall 2021. Tea Ceremony signifies the bride and groom being welcomed into the family. In this work, the groom and bride toast each other and it is the bride welcoming the groom in.
02. “The Tea Ceremony,” set
b. “Pouring Tea for the Ceremony,” GIF, Fall 2021.
03. “The Comb Ceremony” set
a. “The Comb Ceremony,” GIF with Sound, Spring 2022. The ceremony happens with the chant, “One Comb to the end, Two Combs of white hair and eyebrows,Three combs of children and grandchildren are all over the ground.”
03. “The Comb Ceremony” set
b. “Comb to the End,” GIF, Spring 2022. A closer and different vantage point of the ceremony. The use of the stage creates surreal and absurd viewpoint of the notion of prosperity and beauty.
03. “The Comb Ceremony” set
c. “Eating Tang Yuan,” GIF, Spring 2022. Eating Tang Yuan during the ceremony signifies success and family union.
Videos 04-05, “Footbinding” series, 2021. This series examines a recently ended Chinese beauty modification, footbinding. Footbinding is a tradition of breaking and tightly binding feet to create a lotus plant shape. It is meant as a way to provide women to marry above their station. By placing the shoe on a pedestal, it critiques the way beauty modifications are marketed and sold. By introducing the foot, it is not just the shoe that is for sale but the body itself. The two GIFs are meant to be seen together with the sound interacting with both pieces.
04. “Footbinding, Begone!,” GIF with Sound, Fall 2021. Using a Qing Dynasty shoe meant to prevent footbinding, the work uses a “magic trick” to make the protrusion disappear.
05. “Footbinding,” GIF, Spring 2021.
Videos 06-07, “Offerings” series, 2022. In this work, I am making offerings to historical queer Chinese symbols. Because history through a patriarchal and wealthy lens, I am reimagining the symbols through my own relationship with queerness. The two GIFs are meant to be seen together.
06. “Offerings to the Mirror Polishing Gang,” GIF with sound, Spring 2022. Both mirror rubbing and dui shi (paired eating) are euphemism for woman-loving-woman.
07. “Offering of Bitten Fruit,” GIF, Spring 2022. The bitten peach is a story involving an emperor’s male lover offering a peach to the emperor after taking a bite. Instead of a peach, I’m using an orange not only because it’s a traditional offering at altars as it symbolizes wealth and prosperity, but also because of my own history of oranges in my childhood: my memories of being offered oranges as a way of showing love.
Video 08. “Revealing Houyi,” GIF with Sound, Fall 2021. For Han people in historical China, cutting hair is considered disrespectful to one’s family and also signifies criminality. I’m examining this in context with the queer history of cutting hair.
09. Product Catalogue
PDF 09. “Product Catalogue,” catalog, Fall 2021. This work is a simulation of a product catalog where the objects for sale are the objects featured in my GIFs and it acts as a gateway into understanding my work by highlighting my three major themes: Beauty, Wealth, and Marriage (tradition). The Product Catalog uses satire and the capitalistic vernacular to highlight the absurdity of Euro-America’s consumption and perception of Asiatic objects.
Installation – Footbinding Series
Studio – Context and Research
Studio Behind-the-Scenes – Comb to the End
Installation – Tea Ceremony
Installation – Offerings Series
Installation – Comb Ceremony
Jamie Ho
[MFA] Photography
I am a 2nd-year photo grad and a transmedia artist working in photography, GIFs, short-looped video, and sound. My art practice simulates and subverts my ancestral traditions using references from Chinese history in relation to my experience as a 2nd-generation queer Chinese American. I use the aesthetics of camp, drag, and lighting studio to critique ways Euro-America consumes and objectifies Chinese femme-bodies. My work draws from my interaction with Chinese commercial goods to comment on ways consumerism and commodification have impacted my body and bodies like mine.