02 Personal Work (performance work made as an exploration/abstraction of themes I am personally interested in exploring).
Living Document
Ongoing performance, zine
2021–
Living Document is at its core, a romantic poem to MJT’s partner, scalpelled into the bodies of herself, her friends, lovers, and clients. It is catalogued in a zine, and will be added to, subtracted from, rearranged as their love grows and changes over time.
Living Document utilizes BDSM and fetishistic practices to explore queer romance backwards and forwards in time. It illustrates how the love held between two people informs how each person loves others, aestheticized in the syntax of poetry and violence. “My love for my partner is demanding and rewarding. It requires regular feeding.”
Zines are printed in limited editions of 5. Zines are available for purchase for $300 per copy, or by submitting the body for a cutting for future iterations.
The Contract
With Ione Wang
Performance, written text
2021
The Contract was 10 week performance exploring the labor of artistic production and existential aestheticism through the framework of a BDSM dynamic, codified through an Artist/Dealer agreement. The two actors, The Dealer and the Artist, inhabit roles as the D-type and s-type, respectively; Artist produces, and Dealer is allowed to enforce production by any means necessary, including daily check-ins, isolation/confinement (termed “residencies”), physical violence, third party enforcers (”studio managers”), sleep deprivation, enforced wake-up times, and more.
The Contract was initially introduced as a long-term performance meant to exemplify the emotional sadomasochism the Artist associated with artmaking.
However, the following themes erupted as a result of The Contract.
The Contact ended with an exhibition in a strip club, during which the artist had to present her work to 6 of her closest friends as well as 3 dancers.
With Ione Wang
Performance, written text
2021
The Contract was 10 week performance exploring the labor of artistic production and existential aestheticism through the framework of a BDSM dynamic, codified through an Artist/Dealer agreement. The two actors, The Dealer and the Artist, inhabit roles as the D-type and s-type, respectively; Artist produces, and Dealer is allowed to enforce production by any means necessary, including daily check-ins, isolation/confinement (termed “residencies”), physical violence, third party enforcers (”studio managers”), sleep deprivation, enforced wake-up times, and more.
The Contract was initially introduced as a long-term performance meant to exemplify the emotional sadomasochism the Artist associated with artmaking.
However, the following themes erupted as a result of The Contract.
- Performance
- Relational aesthetics
- Labor
The Contact ended with an exhibition in a strip club, during which the artist had to present her work to 6 of her closest friends as well as 3 dancers.
Gone Fishing
Performance, written text
2020
Performed and exhibited at E-viction, Gone Fishing explores themes of digital subjectivity and intellectual property. When notified of an online catfish using photos of her Empress Wu persona, Tom messaged the catfish from another account under the guise of an anonymous client who was not yet ready to book but very ready to waste time. It brought up so many questions: What is the essence of a persona? Is it her image? “How many hours had I, a Gemini, fantasized about having my own clone; these fantasies ranged from fucking them, to testing out cosmetic surgeries on them, to making them do all the administrative tasks that I found tedious. And here eas my catfish taking on marketing my image, one of my most exhausting tasks.” How often does one get to converse with their doppelganger? How often does one get to speak to the void wearing their face? What
During the performance, MJT sourced suggestions from 28-30 people to write a collectively sourced letter to the person using her photos to catfish.
Performance, written text
2020
Performed and exhibited at E-viction, Gone Fishing explores themes of digital subjectivity and intellectual property. When notified of an online catfish using photos of her Empress Wu persona, Tom messaged the catfish from another account under the guise of an anonymous client who was not yet ready to book but very ready to waste time. It brought up so many questions: What is the essence of a persona? Is it her image? “How many hours had I, a Gemini, fantasized about having my own clone; these fantasies ranged from fucking them, to testing out cosmetic surgeries on them, to making them do all the administrative tasks that I found tedious. And here eas my catfish taking on marketing my image, one of my most exhausting tasks.” How often does one get to converse with their doppelganger? How often does one get to speak to the void wearing their face? What
During the performance, MJT sourced suggestions from 28-30 people to write a collectively sourced letter to the person using her photos to catfish.
Desire Membrane or The
Couple, after Louise Bourgeois
Performance, photography
2018
During this hour of consciousness, the couple has requested to be collected a membrane all unto themselves, a cocoon to identify this moment of union and desire, and to give their present a formelessness, from which could emerge all possible forms.
A performative wedding, the enactment of a unification with an acknowledgement of its ephemerality.
Couple, after Louise Bourgeois
Performance, photography
2018
During this hour of consciousness, the couple has requested to be collected a membrane all unto themselves, a cocoon to identify this moment of union and desire, and to give their present a formelessness, from which could emerge all possible forms.
A performative wedding, the enactment of a unification with an acknowledgement of its ephemerality.
Collective Work
- Veil Machine
- Red Canary Song
- Kink Out
Personal Work
-
Catfishing
-
Monument to the Uncouple
- Unlimited Bodies
- Desire Membrane
- Dream Date
- Consumption Practice I
Appearances/Press︎
Bio/CV︎
Empress Wu︎
︎