Shelter Rituals

When considering the topic of "shelter", the first thing that came to our minds was the shared experiences of moving across the world to a new place to begin a new life (the MFA program in HangZhou 杭州). We could not bring much, just a few of our most precious belongings. We began to consider the ritualistic aspect of making a space feel like "home", and devised a performance piece according to the following instructions:

1. Gather a bag of your most important items or trinkets
2. Select another person's bag at random
3. Intuitively arrange blue cloth to mark the foundation of your new "shelter" space. 
4. Examine, interact with, or arrange objects from the bag in your new shelter

This entrance gate we chose as our performance site is a relic outside of the Folk Art Museum on the campus of 中国美术学院 China Academy of Art. It is a reconstruction of the gate of the village that used to exist on the campus grounds. We chose this location for its historic significance as a placeholder for the many lives that came before and called the land home.