Lotus Women Washing Flowers, 2026,
Video performance, 12 minutes, multi-channel video
It remains unclear what she is trying to wash away — dirt, text, or residue — but the repeated friction gradually produces small red marks on her skin. The body becomes a site of labor, where care and abrasion coincide. The repetitive gesture of rubbing oscillates between maintenance and agitation, echoing how bodily movements performed by feminized or racialized subjects are often read as disorder rather than intention. Another woman is singing Korean labor folk songs associated with washing clothes by the rivers and domestic chores. The voice introduces a memory of resilience while pointing to forms of women’s cultural and artistic expression that were rarely formally documented. This work is an offering, a poem, and a counter archive of women’s art and labor outside linear time and logics of resolution.
The work is asking how performance can open a space for speculative histories—particularly when drawing on erased and suppressed forms of women’s labor across contexts, including Asian and diasporic figures. It does so through the lens of singular movements, tracing how feminized bodies have been marginalized, racialized, and pathologized as disordered within patriarchal systems.
Direction & Performance: Yon Natalie Mik
Singing Voice: Noh Eun-Sil
Camera: Rina Nakano
Editing: Yon Natalie Mik