Body of Water

Transparent Plastic Bag & Rice Field Water

Jingdezhen.China 

2026

Performance part of The 2nd Chai Jingdezhen international performance art festival 

Body of Water was a durational action in the rice fields of Jingdezhen during a heavy downpour—residual weather from a typhoon that passed nearby without direct impact. The storm was present in the rain falling from the sky and in the water held by the field. I placed my body between these two bodies of water, not to unite or master them, but to stay with the relation and distance between sky and land.

The work developed from research into local and regional narratives of feminine water figures connected to water, harvest, and fertility. I did not treat those narratives as available symbols, aesthetic material, I did not perform a local ritual, represent a deity, or speak for the communities associated with these practices. My position was that of a guest and artist working in a specific place, aware of my distance from its beliefs and histories.

The material was a human-scale transparent plastic bag, folded to hand size and hidden inside my dark clothing. I walked along the boundary of the field toward a bamboo platform, where the material was slowly revealed. In the downpour, I descended into the field and let the murky water fill the transparent form. Draped around me, the water settled into pockets on either side, shaping what resembled water-filled breasts. My face remained concealed behind the plastic and liquid.

The performance does not claim to honor or embody a tradition. It asks how a body can be present with water, weather, labor, and a working landscape without taking ownership of its meanings. It is a temporary, situated encounter—material and relational, not a ritual or cultural costume.