Research Abstract

Walking with Buckwheat: site-specific performance and social change

This practice-led research project aims to explore my own identity in the context of a broader discussion of the situation for Yi and interrelated groups in southwest China. As a member of the Yi community, albeit one who has been cut off from connections with my original community for the last two generations, I am interested in using site remapping and ethnic identity rebuilding to intervene in, and discuss the future of, minority groups. My research project employs art practice to investigate the contiguous relationship between remote civilizations in China and its position in the world with other communities. The project focuses on displaying and remapping the Yi’s nomadic history, their movement geographically, as well as their agricultural and cultural practices, with the intention of preserving collective memory and asserting the importance of individual free will. I will adopt interdisciplinary performance strategies as my method, in particular walking and site-specific performance, as well as installation strategies, to explore and track my identity. The research frame involves selected theories from anthropology, sociology and agricultural perspectives. To date my reading has focused on titles such as Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience written by Tuan Yifu, and Sansi Roger’s publication, Art, Anthropology and the Gift. The whole project not only plays a role in evidencing widespread social changes, but also invites new possibilities for understanding contemporary Chinese society and its situation.

Bio

Anita She is an emerging research artist lives in China and Australia. Anita had four-year academic training in theatre director and obtained Master Degree of Curating and Cultural Leadership. Marginalized culture and identity issues of minority communities are major focuses in her works and research. During undergraduate period, modern theatrical practices and absurd performance effected her logic of artistic structure and storytelling styles. Combing performance art with other disciplines such as anthropology and sociology becomes her main research scope at the current moment. Anita in interested in exploring and expressing new relations among space, site, political ecology, culture identity and community memory in today's world.

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