background image by Linye Jiang + performance documentation screenshots of video by Tianjiao Wang
Biography
TAITAI +/-/x/÷Tina is an artist based in Chicago and New York with roots in other parts of the US (California,) Taiwan, and Latin America. She makes installations (sculptures and photographs) that can be or are activated in movement performance.Her artist first name TAITAI comes from the colloquial Mandarin reference of a matriarch who earns her status in society by throwing killer parties, taking care of the household and possibly raising descendents.
Negotiating a freedom in self expression with the fragility of conformity and belonging (to society) are key themes in xTina's work. By inconveniencing the resistant body with burdensome organic and inorganic objects, she challenges assumptions about where these objects belong, who belongs with them, and their relationship to living bodies.
-Tina obtained her BA in dance and psychology at Washington University, and Certificate in contemporary dance performance at the Peridance Capezio Center. She has furthered her movement training with other dance (American Dance Festival), yoga asana (Iyengar), and fitness (Strongman) modalities. While trying to figure out the correct fit between survival and art making, she trained as a translator in New York University's MS in Translation Studies (Chinese to English.) She sealed her art making education with an MFA program for Visual Arts from the University of Chicago.
Biografía
TAITAI +/-/x/÷Tina es una artista basada en Chicago y Nueva York, con raices en otras partes de los Estados Unidos (California,) Taiwán, y América Latina. Ella crea instalaciones (esculturas y fotografías) cúales pueden ser o son activadas en performance que involucran movimientos. El primer nombre de artista de TAITAI viene de la referencia coloquial mandarina de una matriarca quién gana su estado en la sociedad organizando fiestas matadoras, cuidando la casa y posiblemente criando descendientes.
Negociando la libertad de expresión individuo con la fragilidad de conformidad y pertenencia (a la sociedad) son temas claves en las obras de xTina. Al hacer el cuerpo resistente inconveniente con objetos orgánicos e inorgánicos, ella desafía suposiciones de adónde pertenece los objetos, quién pertenece con ellos, y sus relaciones con cuerpos vivos.
-Tina obtuvo su licenciatura en danza y psicología, y certificado de performance de danza contemporánea en el Centro de Peridance Capezio. Ella ha continuado su entrenamiento del cuerpo con otras técnicas de danza (Festival de American Dance), asana de yoga (Iyengar) y condición física (Strongman). Cuando trató de encontrar la manera correcta de balancear creando arte y la supervivencia, entrenó cómo un traductor en el programa de maestría de ciencias (chino a inglés) en la Universidad de Nueva York. Finalmente, ella selló su educación de artes con una maestría de artes plásticas de la Universidad de Chicago.
Statement of ÷Tina
What are the ways social conditioning clashes, matches up, or blurs one’s personality and ability to care beyond the self? Can empathy be expanded by shedding the ego or does it simply close one off to other sensory gratifying experiences? How can people be inspired to care more for people they don't identify with? I make perverse dioramas by connecting to the sight, taste, smell, proprioception and hearing senses of my viewers. I use sensory experiences to help them engage with these aforementioned questions.
I grew up in Taiwan, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, and El Salvador. I came to the US when I was 18. Since then I have lived in St. Louis, New York, Oakland, and Chicago. Historically, I performed under the name, Tina Wang. As a dancer, my goals were to entertain and mold myself to the standards of virtuosic movements. Today, as TAITAI I would like my installation and performances to be a source of curiosity, catharsis, and contemplation.
I see myself working against my physical and social conditioning with how I engage with the movement I am well trained in. I am extremely interested in working with materials besides the body that have changeable structural integrity depending on external forces enacted upon them. The reason for that is to expand the entry points for a viewer who does not have an understanding of subcultures like somatics but have touched a hard surface and felt a certain way about it. I want to be expansive with the material cultures I engage with in my installation works. However, in performances, it is important that I am the sole performer, to stay true to the presentation and destruction of the values of the mastery of the body.
I work in an ecosystem of movement research for performance that led to object (film photo and ceramics) making which fed back into performative installations. I present my body and perform with organic materials in all states of their hydration to emphasize the malleability, humor, and fragility of the human condition.
I am concerned with how easy it is to get sucked into the aspiration to be someone else and consequently bypass an examination of oneself. I also see the dilemma of feeling distracted in this world, the soothing quality of seeking a linear path to follow. I am empathetic to that emotional swell of seeing someone “win” by sacrificing everything for crossing a “finish line" but also am skeptical of how equity is achieved, the way trickle down economics purports. I see the danger and pressure to glorify pushing the body to the maximum and interpreting pain as weakness.
Unfortunately, the cycle of work to burnout leaves no room for empathy and generosity for others. I see how it traps us into overextending and then justifying overconsumption. If humans can develop more sensitivity to their body and learn ways to cultivate tools to process actualization and find a home within themselves, there is less outward seeking for gratification. When that dissociation is minimized, the outward looking can be used more intentionally for encouraging and supporting others; the world can have a chance to be a more equitable place. This is a philosophy I have developed in my decade of working in the world of performance and installation making in the last three years.