Akeroyd Collection

Works

Sin Wai Kin, Tell me everything you saw, and what you think it means, 2018

Tell me everything you saw, and what you think it means is a video work from a larger performance series titled A View from Elsewhere. In this video, we see the artist, dressed as one of their earlier alter-ego’s Victoria Sin, lounging in a luxuriously furnished room of satins and furs. The character’s makeup and hair are immaculate, and a pair of silicone breasts are visible under sheer, diamantéen crusted lingerie. She assumes a pose that is alluring and seductive while simultaneously intimidating and confrontational. The body’s movements are barely perceptible and the almost still image references the opulence of European brothels of the 19th Century, burlesque, and Beaux Arts era reclining nudes. The drag appears theatrical as the stillness and visible prosthetics emphasize the body’s presence and its complex representation of femininity. The voice-over describes the image in forensic detail, guiding your eyes across her surface, imploring you to really ‘look at her’. With the camera and the artist both perfectly still, it is you, the viewer, that surveys the subject under such guidance. The narrator articulates the politics of looking; how once the façade is penetrated, the gaze is rendered reciprocal. At the end of the video, we hear a descriptive account of the subject moving from their pose and coming towards the screen, but the screen is black. Perhaps we saw behind the façade and the reciprocal gaze was averted?

Mediumsingle-channel HD video
Duration5 minutes 39 seconds
Editionof 5 + 2 APs