Wu Tsang
Wu Tsang is a filmmaker, artist and performer based in Los Angeles.[1] His work is concerned with queer and trans community and community-practices.
Work
Film
Tsang's feature documentary, Wildness, documents the Los Angeles trans bar "Silver Platter".[2] Wu Tsang directed and produced the film. It was co-written with Roya Rastegar. The film was premiered at the MoMA Documentary Fortnight in New York and has been screened at festivals in Canada, the US, and Chile. Since 1963, "Silver Platter" has been a historic bar that patronised by a predominantly Latin LGBT community. Wildness documents what happens when a group of young artists host a weekly performance night at the bar. Documenting the collision between the two LGBT communities, the film poses questions about community, space, and ownership. In an interview, Tsang describes how his film represents a number of people are often stereotyped (trans people, people of colour, and queer communities) and he experiments with how to be accountable to the communities that he documents.[3]
Performance, Video, and Installations
In a 2014 interview, Tsang states, "For me performance is like research; lived experience is fundamental. I have to do these things to understand or have any critical analysis. I’ve never been someone who’s going to stay behind the camera and observe. I don’t perform onstage that often, but when I do it’s often part of a process—it’s a way of thinking through things."[4]
- Shape of a Right Statement (video, 2008)
- The Fist is Still Up (neon sign in the Silver Platter, Los Angeles, 2008)
- P.I.G. (Politically Involved Girls) (with Zackary Drucker and Mariana Marroquin, performance at New Original Works Festival, Los Angeles, 2009)
- The Table (with NGUZUNGUZU and Total Freedom, Jalisco Bar, Los Angeles, 2010)
- Damelo Todo (Silver Platter, Los Angeles, 2010 and Clifton Benevento, New York, 2011)[5]
- Full Body Quotation (performance at Performa 11, New Museum, New York, 2011)
- For how we perceived a life (Take 3) (installation, New Museum Triennial, New York, 2012)
- Green Room (installation, Whitney Biennial, New York, 2012)
- Tied and True (video, co-written with Nana Offoriatta-Ayim, 2012)
- Mishima in Mexico (video, with Alexandro Segade, 2012)
- Breakdown (performance, with Ashland Mines and Kelela Mizanekristos, Tate Modern Tanks, London, 2013)
- A Day in the Life of Bliss (2-channel video installation, with boychild, 2013)
Awards and honors
In 2012, Tsang was named one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film".[3] At Outfest 2012, Wildness won the Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Documentary.[6] Also in 2012, his work was featured in the Whitney Biennial and the New Museum Triennial. In 2014, he was included in the Hammer Museum's 2014 "Made in L.A." biennial.[7]
Filmography
- Wildness (external link)
External links
- Wu Tsang at the Internet Movie Database
- "WU TSANG". wutsang.com. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
- "An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie". tandfonline.com. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
- http://wildnessmovie.squarespace.com/storage/Dean%20Spade%20make-shift%20web.pdf "Wildness" essay by Dean Spade
- http://wildnessmovie.squarespace.com/storage/WB%2712_Tsang.pdf "Wildness" essay by Wu Tsang in the Whitney Biennial Catalogue
- http://wildnessmovie.squarespace.com/storage/nifstc_wu%20roya.pdf A Conversation between Wu Tsang and Roya Rastegar
References
- ↑ "ABOUT — WU TSANG". wutsang.com. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
- ↑ "¿Qué pasó con los martes? - WILDNESS THE MOVIE - trailer". wildnessmovie.com. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Wu Tsang | Filmmaker Magazine". filmmakermagazine.com. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
- ↑ Cheh, Carol (June 30, 2014). "Artists at Work: Wu Tsang". East of Borneo. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
- ↑ "CLIFTON BENEVENTO | 2011 Wu Tsang PR". cliftonbenevento.com. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
- ↑ "Outfest 2012". outfest.org. Retrieved 2014-07-25.
- ↑ "Made in L.A.: Wu Tsang". Hammer Museum. Retrieved 22 August 2014.