Tianjin, China, live art residency

Title: Spirit Money

This work was created during a live art residency at the Tianjin Xiangsi Art Museum, supported by the John Lewis & Partners Bursary for the Pursuit of Excellence and generous assistance from the curator who provided accommodation and living expenses. During my walks around Tianjin, I observed brightly coloured tissue paper used as offerings outside temples and in local shops. Inspired by these materials and drawing on my own research into the experiences of women in Mexican and Chinese contexts, I brought hand-cut tissue paper inscribed with messages reflecting the dehumanising labels often applied to women workers in Chinese factories, terms such as nervous, unskillable, stuck in dead-end jobs, and low wages.

The performance involved creating a dress from this paper, covering me from head to toe, and dancing to a well-known Chinese song shared by a student, whose lyrics compare people dancing to beans in an expensive, fragile porcelain bowl. The piece combined local materials and cultural elements with my own ideas and experiences.