xīn nī 廖芯妮
xīn nī 廖芯妮 (“understanding you”) is an intimate auto-ethnographic portrait expressed through dance and digital technologies. Liaw engages in intergenerational conversations with her family and community to transform the linguistic divide between her Chinese name and its Hakka translation into a space for healing. Drawing on themes of decolonizing queerness to emphasize self-love and self-curiosity, the work explores both physical and technological attachments. Bodies made up of 3D-rendered cultural objects hold space for the stories of Liaw’s elders, while expanding the growing web of her ancestral knowledge.
Credits:
Commissioned by: RT Collective co-presented with Toronto Dance Theatre
in conjunction with Chimerik 似不像 Collective’s project, Ritual-Spective 迴融
a film by: Jasmine Liaw
Executive Creative Collaborator: William Liaw
Featuring the Voice of: William Liaw & Anne Leong
DP and Cinematography by: Aysia Tse, Jasmine Liaw
Assistant Camera Operator: Dee Luu
Sound Design and Assistant Set Designer/Camera Operator: Dino Hajdarovac
Photogrammetry/3D Capture Assistants: Aysia Tse, Jenaya Liaw, William Liaw
Motion Capture Advisor: Immony Mèn (Public Visualization Lab and Dia:Stories)
Choreography/Performance/Motion Capture Dance Artist: Jasmine Liaw
Archival Footage provided by: William Liaw
Editor: Jasmine Liaw
Dramaturgical and Technological Supervisor: Immony Mèn (OCAD University)
Creative Mentorship: Sammy Chien (Chimerik 似不像)
Press/Media:
Asian Arts and Culture Trust in partnership with HOLT RENFREW
EDAA - Canada’s Emerging Digital Artist Award
York Centre for Asian Research
Screenings/Exhibitions: (in order of public presentation)
2023 Screen:Moves commission by RT Collective, Toronto, CAN
2023 Oneness Festival, Toronto, CAN
2023 Grunt Gallery/Mount Pleasant Community Screen Annual Program 2023, Vancouver, CAN
2023 Asian Arts and Culture Trust exhibition with HOLT RENFREW, Toronto, CAN
2023 Vector Festival presented by Interaccess, Toronto, CAN
2023 Mile Zero Dance, Edmonton, CAN
2023 UrbanSpace Gallery, Toronto, CAN
2023 Femme Fatale Festival, Toronto, CAN
2023 Liminul Festival, Toronto, CAN
2023 Experimental Series, Salt Lake City, US
2023 XINEMA Program 10 presented by VIFF, Vancouver, CAN
2023 Local Sightings Film Festival presented by Northwest Film Forum, Seattle, US
2023 Pleasure Dome, Toronto, CAN
2023 Emerging Digital Artist Award presented by EQ Bank and Trinity Square Video, CAN
2023 Focal Points Exhibition exhibited by EQ Bank and Trinity Square Video, Toronto, CAN
2024 Images Festival, Toronto, CAN
2025 Reframe Festival, Peterborugh, CAN
2025 DANCE@30FPS, Ohio, US
2025 What Passes Unspoken, Curated by Kathleen Foran, OCADU Graduate Gallery, Toronto, CAN
A part of the Asian Artist Culture (AACT) and Trust within their Bitten Peach project at HOLT RENFREW Yorkdale, Toronto in the form of a Capsule Exhibition running between May 25 - June 11, 2023 as well as on AACT’s Manifesto Space online exhibition.
Manifesto Space’s inaugural exhibition, The Bitten Peach: Decolonizing Queer Asians, is a group exhibition curated by Shengyu Cai and explores the intersectionality of Asian and queer identities through various artistic mediums.
Footage from Mount Pleasant Community Screen (Grunt Gallery) 2023