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The Unspeakable In Pursuit Of The Uneatable
Wei Zhou
8 September — 30 September 2023
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Opening 8 September, 6pm - 9pm
The Unspeakable In Pursuit Of The Uneatable is an immersive, visceral exhibition that intertwines Chinese Zhiguai tales (“tales of the strange”) and science fiction/speculative fiction. It features a 3-channel video installation accompanied by furry textiles and a scent that blends organic and non-organic elements. This exhibition seeks to address the structural oppression and systematic discrimination faced by monsterised and pathologised sexual minority bodies, specifically East Asian women. Instead of passive control and governance, the artist seeks alternative ways of self-alienation and bodily metamorphosis/modification to embody desires, thereby helping viewers process and relate to their personal and collective trauma of feeling uncategorized and being in-between.
This body of work uses frameworks of different versions of Huli jing’s stories, incorporating narratives around “hunting” and the history of fox hunting in the UK, bringing together the past, present, and future. Huli jing (Chinese: 狐狸精 ; ‘fox spirit’) is a Chinese mythological creature that is capable of shapeshifting, and may either be a benevolent or malevolent spirit, the nine-tailed fox, jiuweihu (Chinese: 九尾狐 ; ‘ninetailed fox’), being the most well-known.
This rewrite of a Huli jing’s story emphasises their interspecies transformation ability and control over their own sexuality, which is subversive and queered. This version of Huli jing’s story will be presented in a soft sci-fi visual style, featuring visually stimulating lighting and futuristic settings. The story aims to explore the meaning of ancient mythological narratives in modern times, human and non-human relationships, and our understanding of femininity, sexualities, and desires through a non-male-centric and non-human-centric gaze.
Wei Zhou (b.1993) is a Chinese filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist based in Glasgow, UK. Her art practice encompasses video, photography, sound, and writing.
