mole-room-flesh | Qingmei YAO

Room (5) Flesh
2022-2023
Video installation
LCD screen, tiles, wooden door, chair, metal
Single-channel HD video, color, sound
6 min 05 sec

This installation allows the viewer to observe through the half-open door of a dilapidated bathroom the fragmented image of an LCD screen reflected in a mirror. In the reflected image, an older, semi-nude woman, portrayed by Violette, rubs the folds of her skin in another bathroom. Yao collaborates with this performer because it is uncommon to see an elderly woman’s naked body and its physical tensions. She takes a long look at herself in the mirror, stretching her body to highlight her sternum, shoulder blades, ribs, and spine. These protruding bones seem to emerge from the skin that envelops them, evoking the raw aspect of the performance, which is brimming with physical vitality. The performance leans towards a ritual of martyrdom with a touch of blasphemy.

«Room» series

In « Room «, Yao Qingmei collaborateswith five contemporary dancers andperformers, gathered successively in thesame standardized hotel room to explorethe space. All have different physiques,genders, ages and skin tones, andpractice different types of dance. YaoQingmei maintains the diversity of thedancers’ profiles, subtly capturing theindividuality of each and guiding theirphysical expressions, urging them toexplore the various angles of an enclosedspace. These experiences are born of the artist’spersonal observations and perceptionsof the details of the hotel room during hisisolation in 2021 in Shanghai. Yao seeksan empathetic physical experiencedrawn from the improvisations of bodiesin the «room». This place refers notonly to a confined space, but also to apsychological one. This video seriesis the most reality-related part of the«mole» exhibition, a true testament tothe physical expression of dancers inan enclosed space, where the freedom,agility and diversity of the bodiesthemselves transcend the physical limitsof space and stereotypes.