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Room (4) Rub
2022-2023
Single-channel HD video, color, sound
15 min 05 sec

Yao Qingmei invited a young contemporary dancer (Julie Agoya) to tirelessly repeat thegestures of rubbing, cleaning and tidying up in the room, transforming these everydayactions into dance. She reinterprets the enclosed space through the path of her movements.The different objects in the room, of varying textures, produce different sounds as a resultof the rhythm of the danced movements. The dancer's skin color and gender play on thestereotypes that predestine the role of housekeeper to a black woman, only to break freefrom them, forming another meaning of "room".

night

«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.

Room "Flesh"

肉, Chair

Room "Rub"

拭, Frotter

Room "Observ"

观, Observer

Room "Walk"

行, Marcher

Room "Wrap"

裹, Draper

Ancre 1
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