Sunday August 8, 3:30pm
Centrifugal Revolving by Hsiao-Chu (Julia) Hsia
FiveMyles
558 St Johns Place
Crown Heights, Brooklyn
FiveMyles gallery is excited to be hosting a public participatory happening by Taiwanese multidisciplinary artist Hsiao-Chu (Julia) Hsia presenting her performance “Centrifugal Revolving”.
Exploring themes of memories, displacements and interconnectedness, the performance unfolds into a durational piece where the public is invited to connect with experiences related with family, friends and loved ones. Circling on a sheet of fabric, the artist carries a basket on her back while she walks and picks and drops multiple plastic children balls. Each ball features a sentence related to a moment in time and aims to evoke an intimate past experience with another being: “Last time you hugged your parents”, “Last time you had dinner with your best friend, in-person”, or “Last time you travelled with a loved one”. The audience is welcome to touch, read and take away the artefacts during the performance. The artist’s intention is to create a safe space facilitating talking, listening and sharing. Reflecting upon the current unstable times of isolation that we have lived through as a collective experience, this work by Hsiao-Chu (Julia) Hsia suggests that we are still tied together in different ways, emotionally and virtually. “Centrifugal Revolving” pertains to the construction of her identity as an immigrant and BIPOC artist. This piece was previously performed at CultureLab LIC in Queens (May, 2021) and El museo in Buffalo (July, 2021.)
Hsiao-Chu (Julia) Hsia earned her MFA in Community Arts class of 2020 from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).
About the artist:
With a psychology background, Hsiao-Chu (Julia) Hsia is a freelance artist now working in the New York City area after receiving her Master’s degree in Community Arts at Maryland Institute College of Art. In the practical part, she focuses on performance art and painting, investigates mental health and relational art topics academically. Her vision is to keep developing the interdisciplinary of the two fields, psychological art, in order to utilize psychology knowledge on a broader scale in art.
Julia sees her art as a medium that has the ability to raise awareness of issues and voices that did not be seen and heard. She tends to utilize interactions in her performances in order to invite audiences to not only view as an audience but also join the conversation as a participant, together, sharing thoughts comfortably and talking about social issues safely.
Being involved in communities allows Julia to learn from others and see social issues deeply in different aspects. She identifies herself as a part of the BIPOC group, a part of “pre-” immigrants, and she supports, advocates for her community through her artworks. This is the way she stays in solidarity with them.
