Chime Zine is about the fight for global gender equality. This issue
of the zine looks at our core tenet through the lens of performance.
We use the term performance broadly, enabling us to ask as many
questions as possible. For example, what is the difference between
an authentic performance or something performative? Can meaning be
found through the layering of actions with predetermined intention?
Does the dichotomy between performer and audience create division or
a space ripe for change? Can performance be a tool used to advance
global gender equality? Change may start with a chime but can it
also happen when a performance asks us To Gather Together? ADAM ELI
imilla
skate
Adrenaline, culture, sisterhood, and empowerment: these are just
a few words that represent us, a group of young women who want
to make a change. ImillaSkate is a collective of women who
decided to live life to the fullest, express freedom and empower
others.
ImillaSkate was created in 2019 in Cochabamba, Bolivia, by a
group of women who got together to skateboard.
uterus
man
lu yang
Lu Yang is an artist whose 3D animated works bridge the
scientific and the technological with the spiritual and
philosophical, creating new visions of Chinese corporeality.
Shanghai-born and Tokyo-based, Yang's 2013 work,
Uterus Man, conjures up a proposed “Superman” with the
powers of the uterine reproductive organ, employing the
aesthetics of video game design to propose a gamified
transhumanist subject. Raising more questions than it answers,
Uterus Man is an amalgamation of Yang's interests in
biomedicine, gaming, and Eastern philosophy.
What does the fight for gender equality look like in the virtual
universe? What does performance look like in the virtual
universe?
I think we're already living in a digitized, virtual world, so
there's no need to be bound by the ways of the material one, but
it seems people still project their material worldviews onto the
virtual one anyway, so the virtual and material worlds end up
being not that different after all. If class, gender, race,
nationality—all these concepts of binary dichotomies and
juxtapositions from this world—are just moved into the virtual
one, that would be so uninteresting. My personal ideal for a
virtual world is one that's completely free of such concepts and
rules. It's not bound by the concepts of the real world, and
therefore there isn't a need to fight for gender equality.
joshuaserafin
Joshua Serafin is a multidisciplinary artist and performer.
Below they speak to CHIME about their newest work and how
performance can be used to create change and advance global
gender equality
Can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your
practice?
Hi, my name is Joshua Serafin. And I am a Filipino
Brussels-based multimedia artist, who focuses on dance,
performance, and choreography. The main focus of my work is
performance that is situated in the theater and the main theme
of my practice is embodiment.
I use my body as a canvas to talk about current social,
political, cultural phenomena. My work deals with questions of
identity, transmigration, queer politics, representation, state
of being, and ways of inhibiting the body.
I'm currently developing a cosmology of work, which I call
Cosmological Gangbang, which seeks to create new forms of
rituals and embodiment in relation to queer ecologies. I'm very
much interested in the duality between the physical form and its
representation.
on performance
julia bullock
At a time when the label “performative” is equated with being
disingenuous, it is interesting to contemplate how the element
of performance can be used to advance global gender equality.
Especially for someone like me, who performs for a living.
Over the years, I've reflected a lot on the actions of artists I
most revere.
our hair
zainab fasiki
The Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran began in response to a
compulsory hijab law, requiring women to cover their hair and
bodies in public. Women in Iran have been fighting against this
law for decades, arguing that it violates their fundamental
human rights and restricts their freedom.
The death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, while in police
custody for allegedly not wearing the hijab in accordance with
government standards, sparked months-long protests. These
protests have been met with violent government crackdowns, with
protesters facing arrest, imprisonment, torture, and death.
zainab fasiki
intimate resistance
muna
mussie
Muna Mussie is an Eritrean performance-based artist based in
Bologna, Italy. Her performances
Oasi, Oblio, and Milite Ignoto (Unknown Soldier)
ignite probing questions regarding the history of colonialism
and the creative possibilities of performing the private in the
public. Below, Mussie speaks with CHIME about these most recent
works and her thoughts on performing the Self, finding channels
to discuss colonialism through the story of her grandmother, and
more.
So, in relation to performance, what is the impact it has on
your experience?
I'll start with my experience as a performer and what my journey
has been. So consequently I'm speaking from my own experience.
Performance and all art forms and artistic mediums inevitably
have personal and social value. I think that the personal will
inevitably affect the social. When I talk about the personal I
am talking about the concept of politics in terms of more of an
intimate resistance.
i am not a mother
alison leiby
I'm many things to many people. To some I'm a friend.
To some I'm a coworker. To a few employees of a Fort Greene
natural wine shop I'm an annoying regular always looking
for something “fun.” But to many people I'm probably “the
woman with the abortion show.” I am also not a mother.
I began the off-Broadway theater run of my solo comedy show, “Oh
God, A Show About Abortion,” at the end of April 2022.