Wong Kit Yi, Karaoke lecture-performance + Q&A with Prem Krishnamurthy

Case Western Reserve University, Health Campus

No registration

In room 160L, a first-floor conference room in the Samson Pavilion, FRONT proposes a new video installation by artist Wong Kit Yi. Additionally, during the opening days of FRONT, Room 119, the large-scale team-based learning lab with multiple screens.

After researching in both Akron and Cleveland, Wong became inspired by the story of the world’s first voice-box transplant, which was carried out at Cleveland Clinic in 1998. This karaoke lecture performance covers a range of topics, including reanimating a dead person’s voice; the elusive nature of the inner voice; pilgrimages made in sickness; ancient temple priests interpreting dreams millennia in advance of Sigmund Freud; the homesickness of Jiang Shi, the Chinese hopping zombie; a powerful spell that has been used since the Middle Ages; and methods for using the “inner wind” from our lungs to perform political magick.

In her interdisciplinary approach, the perceived separation between bodies of knowledge and types of experience are broken down and imagined anew. Wong Kit Yi represents a particular form of creator: one who generates their own categories and formats. The way that she challenges existing genre and disciplinary boundaries suggests how art-making can propose new connections within the world.

The new video will be presented as a continuous loop running throughout the standard hours of FRONT venues (11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday) during the triennial (July 14–Oct 2, 2022).