The (Ruins of) Ciba Shrine
Brooklyn, NY, 2024/9
Drawing inspiration from Shang Dynasty female general and empress Fu Hao’s Tomb 妇好墓(ca. 1600-1050 B.C. ) and Han Dynasty The Tomb of Lady Dai马王堆辛追夫人墓 (168 B.C.E.), CAO Collective’s The (Ruins of) Ciba Shrine 糍粑庙 is a site-specific, three-piece multimedia installation that turns the gallery into a living space of gathering, mourning, and memory-making. Ciba 糍粑, a southern Chinese dessert, is made through punching steamed sticky rice. CAO Collective’s ongoing performance series Ciba Punch 女拳手打糍粑 and Spiritual Figures 女灵 re-excavate food-making practices as a ritual to communicate with the land. The performances, both a ceremony and a ritual, offer a fleeting yet intimate space for kinship, care, and the possibility of collective dreaming, held by those from queer, disabled, diasporic, and marginalized communities. The installation builds on the performances and centers sticky rice as a symbol for transnational (dis)connections, community resilience, and transformation.
On view as part of to hold a we exhibition at BRIC House Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Sept 19-Dec 22, 2024.
This project is supported by BRIC and Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.
Photography by Sebastian Bach and Toby Tenenbaum.
On view as part of to hold a we exhibition at BRIC House Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Sept 19-Dec 22, 2024.
This project is supported by BRIC and Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.
Photography by Sebastian Bach and Toby Tenenbaum.
the oracles we burn 合抱之木 (2024)Columns constructed from plywood panels: 30.5 inches x 35.7 inches x 10 feet, 30 inches x 36 inches x 10 feet, text, drawing, polaroid, linocut prints, rice paper, cotton steamer cloth, sticky rice straw, dried leaves, sticky rice root, sticky rice husks, oracle bone
to hold a we 生于毫末 (2024)
Five kneeling cushions : 13cm x 49cm x 46 cm x 20 cm (5.1 inches x 19.3 inches x 18.1 inches x 7.9 inches) each
Fabric 92 inches x 116 inches, studio community-used mattress 60 inches x 80 inches, laser-cut prints, mulberry silk, cotton, vegan fur, metal bells
Sixteen mugwort cushions: 15 3/4 inches x 16 inches each
Community altar table: 13 inches x 46 inches x 3 inches, printed community zines and books
we will be ancestors too 九层之台 (2024)
Eighty-one mugwort cushions: 15 3/4 inches x 16 inches each, mugwort fluff, cotton, linen and polyester, mulberry silk, hand stitching
to hold a we Opening Reception Performance
September 18, 2024, 7:30-8pm, BRIC House Gallery, Brooklyn, NYC
