Kevin Wong on Mourning Piece Premiering This Weekend at West Wave Festival 31
Mourning Piece is a duet by Kevin Wong and Matthew Wong built through honoring their relationship. As a series of rituals to let the moment end, Kevin and Matthew create a practice to help them play with and reflect on the what if–what if the ritual ends, what if the ritual isn’t over, what if the ritual doesn’t happen? Come create the frame, add some light, and follow the guide to discover what comes next at Safehouse Arts.
Kevin Wong and Matthew Wong have been developing their artistic relationship since middle school and continue to source inspiration from their past to create for their future. Growing up as queer, Chinese Americans in San Francisco, they question where the lines of “Asian”, “American”, and “Asian American” are in connection to how they develop their queer identities. They will lead A Music and Dance Improvisation Jam, a space for dancers and musicians to come together, on Saturday, January 11th at Safehouse Arts. Their full bio along with more details about their performance and workshop can be found at the end of this article.
Kevin Wong dances on concrete in front of a white garage door. Sun shines on his tan face as he smiles and tosses his body into a carefree side bend, his long black hair blowing in the wind. He is wearing an open green and blue plaid button up with black pants. Photo Credit: Kevin Wong
Chloe Cetinkaya: I’d like to start with the title of your work, Mourning Piece. Can you give some insight into that title and how you came up with it?
Kevin Wong: Totally! So, my partner, Matthew, and I, are still in the very early stages of this work. We were like, what's a title that we can use as a placeholder for the time being? We’re in a practice of mourning in this piece, but it's not mourning the death or loss of somebody. We're trying to invite a sensation of longing and mourning in the audience as they're watching the work.
CC: Can you tell me a little bit about your collaborator, Matthew Wong, and how you decided to work together on this piece? Is this an interdisciplinary work and if so, what are the disciplines of the artists involved?
KW: I love Matthew. Matthew is so cool! He’s my collaborating partner for this piece. A little history, he and I have known each other for many years. We were middle school friends, that's when we first met, and he and I were the oddballs of our friend group because we’re the only two artists who continued pursuing our practices through college and through our grad programs. Matthew is primarily a musician. He’s an experimental, electronic-based musician, and in this duet, we're working with his saxophone as his source of sound.
In terms of interdisciplinary, there’s this conversation between music and movement that he and I have been building as a practice. But beyond that, something that he and I are constantly questioning is this statement of Asian American. What is Asian America? How does that live in our histories, our lineage, and our partnership? We were, both, San Franciscan, Asian children raised in the same school systems. We have so many similarities in our lifestyles and practices, that we wanted to return to our shared histories of what is Asian America to bridge our work as a partnership.
CC: What was your process for collaborating and creating this work with Matthew?
KW: So, Matthew and I love to chat. We love to gossip. We love to hang out. We love to catch up and go through existential crises together. And almost every rehearsal together starts with 30 minutes, 45 minutes, sometimes an hour-long conversation about what's happening in our lives.
In terms of our “artistic” practice, I put quotes around that word “artistic”, because I think our conversations are artistically charging our duet, but in terms of the practice, we come from an improvisation-based approach. We like to have conversations about what it means to lead and support the other person in improvisational play. And so, our duet is built through many improvisational scores where, conceptually, we're focusing on a lead and support relationship. The scores have different themes, different approaches to, and different questions about what that lead and support is.
CC: You mentioned ritual in your project description. Can you talk a little bit about what ritual means to you in this work? Why is ritual important?
KW: Yeah, so, we're using a light source, a flashlight, as the guiding instrument of our work together in this piece. When I think about the use of a light, I think about the idea of spirits and guiding those spirits, whatever that might mean, to their next stages. For me, what makes it a ritual is that it is an action that serves a purpose. I think the question that our work is pointing towards is, what is our concept of the ritual of our duet together? What is the purpose of us moving together in this improvisational score? What is the purpose of us doing this at this time together and letting the audience peek in?
The ritual in this work is the duet improvisation and what purpose it’s serving for the audience to witness that practice. In terms of why it is so important? We do things every day, and it serves a purpose, like the ritual of brushing our teeth. It serves the purpose of getting our day started, or helping us do the next thing. So for me, the idea of guiding the spirits to whatever next stage using light, is similar to the question of, what is this improvisation guiding us towards? What's next for us as we're improvising?
CC: That leads me to the next question because in your project description you write, “Come create the frame, add some light, and follow the guide to discover what comes next”. I’m curious, is this an interactive work? How do you hope to engage the audience with this piece?
KW: We have a vision of opening the show with a pre-show audience invitation. We want to ask the audience to make paper lanterns. They're going to cut, tape and fold lanterns and those lanterns will be used in the performance. That's one way that we want the audience to engage with our duet. If things go according to plan, our piece will also open with me creating a version of a lantern by listening to Matthew give instructions out loud on what I need to do. This craft is something that I think is necessary for the audience to build a deeper connection with what we’re doing. The paper lanterns are a light source, and something that they’re making as they see me go through the same process of building my own version of a lantern.
CC: As you were talking about how you envision crafting paper lanterns as a way of deepening the audience’s connection with you, something that you wrote in your bio came to mind, “Rooted in filial piety, how can our chosen and assumed identifications blur the lineages, generational trauma, and narratives that get passed along through our artistic practice?” Can you speak more about this statement and what it means to you?
KW: Yes, it's such a poetic statement, too. There is a very strong value of family in our culture and typically this family value is blood related, like the concept that the youngest son is going to keep their parents in their home once their parents get too old and need a caretaker. That is an example of this filial piety practice. Another filial piety practice that Matthew and I have touched on is how every spring, we go visit the cemetery to give our honors and praise to our ancestors by bowing three times to them and offering flowers at their gravestones. Again, really honing in on the family and the ancestor’s spirits.
With that said, Matthew and I are both queer, and the concept of blood family and also culture mixing into that queerness doesn't always mesh well for our own safety and well-being, especially in this more traditional Chinese family that we grew up in where queerness isn't allowed. So, Matthew and I have really thought about who we are allowing into our lives and asking, how does that support what we're doing with ourselves and how we’re finding our own spiritual beingness?
Now emerges this question of, do I continue to give my honors to my ancestors who probably hate my guts for wanting to have sex with men, or do I want to continue finding new people who aren't even affiliated with my cultural upbringing and allow them to be a part of my family? That, for me, feels like the generational trauma that I was talking about. It raises questions of who is my family, who is not, where do I feel safe, and where don't I feel safe? So, the weird intersection of culture, family values, and the capacity to choose how to uplift yourself is really where Matthew and I have grown together in our work, where he and I just feel safe enough to be quirky, awkward, weird, fun, sociable beings together because of our rich history together.
CC: Thank you for sharing that with me. I have a few more questions that I’d like to ask you because I’m really curious to know how the West Wave Festival artists are thinking about their relationship with an audience.
Who do you hope will come see this work and why?
What do you hope people will take away from this work?
What experience do you hope the audience will have? You already touched on this one a bit when you answered the first question in this interview, but if there’s anything else you’d like to add, please do.
And, is there anything else that you would like the audience to know about this work, or you as an artist?
KW: The way that I want to start answering the questions might just thread me into each of them. So, I think the first thing that I will say is that this isn't the first duet Matthew and I have done or are doing together.
Matthew and I actually have done quite a few works together as a pair and our work is rooted in this curiosity with memories. We go through our memories of being middle school and high school aged, together and apart, and then we share our memories and we just question each other and gaslight each other. We’re like, did that really happen or not? Performing the works that grew from that process has created a sort of fan group of people who have been interested in our work since then, and those are the people who I really want to see this work, to see this new version of Matthew and I. We have not been in a duetship for the last two years and this is our very first piece back together. This work is still rooted in the deeply intimate relationship between Matthew and I, as all of our works have been, but I think it's something different. It's not rooted in this process of sharing and exposing our memories. I want the audience to feel and experience how close Matthew and I are from a very different lens, something that doesn't feel as on the nose as our past works. I want people to experience the intimacy between Matthew and I and enjoy it, even the people who have no idea who we are.
The other takeaway that Matthew and I had talked about is the sensation of desire. Meaning, really wanting the audience to feel a charge of wanting something out of the piece itself. We're imagining a progression of disappearing further and further away from the audience, further back upstage to the smaller room in the back, or even all the way to the green room behind the stage, while keeping the audience in that downstage, forward area where they're traditionally seated in Safehouse Arts. We want to give them the sensation of distancing, creating a sense of longing and a sense of desire. That is what we want to happen. But we'll find out when the show day comes if people will clock out and just sit and choose not to see what's happening in the far distance, or if they're going to lean forward in their chair, or if they’ll be brave enough to stand up and walk to the back of the room with us.
In terms of, what do we want them to leave with? I’m not sure. In the present moment, I do want them to have that sensation of desire and longing, but in terms of what's the aftermath and what's next? I'm not entirely sure. Maybe just the sensation of wanting to know Matthew and I on a deeper level, having more desire to just see who we are.
CC: The way that you answered those questions inspired a new one. What do you hope that the audience will bring to this work? I thought of this because of the way that you're having them participate by making the lanterns.
KW: Yeah, oh, wow. That's a delicious question! Because, we’re saying, Hey, make a lantern! And setting them up with some sort of expectation or desire.
I'm hoping that the audience brings a little bit of warmth to us, a little bit of tenderness, a little bit of softness. In Safehouse, the white walls, harsh corners, and low ceilings can feel a little tough. I think I want the audience to soften the space a bit when they show up to the work.
CC: Thank you, Kevin! I enjoyed getting to know more about this piece, you, and your relationship with Matthew. You’ve ignited a strong desire in me to go see this work! So, thank you for taking the time to do this.
KW: Thanks for the conversation! Yeah, it's been really sweet.
West Wave Festival 31
Jan 9-19, 2025
PROGRAM A
Jan 9-10 @ 7:30pm - Zahna Simon / Kevin Wong & Matthew Wong / Kamala Fifield (ASL will be offered)
Content Warning: Mourning Piece uses flashlights and may shine into your eyes.
SAT JAN 11 @ 11am-12:30pm A music and dance improvisation jam. Collaborators Matthew and Kevin Wong will guide a space for dancers and musicians to come together. From a lens of developing intimacy to support improvisational decision-making, we will create multiple experiences for us to get to know each other, challenge our habits, and explore the possibilities of collaboration. This is a semi-formal jam where the guides will offer a way into the session, ways to take risks, and possibilities for joy and pleasure to arise. Come with an open mind and aim to be curious, have fun, and build connections through movement or sound (or both!).
All performances at SAFEhouse Arts 145 Eddy St. San Francisco 94102
CONTACT: Joe Landini (415) 518-1517 or joe@SAFEhouseArts.org
TICKETS $25 (No One Turned Away) https://safehousearts.org/
Kevin and Matthew Wong have been developing their artistic relationship since middle school and continue to source inspiration from their past to create for their future. Growing up as queer, Chinese Americans in San Francisco, they question where the lines of “Asian”, “American”, and “Asian American” are in connection to how they develop our queer identities. Rooted in filial piety, how can our chosen and assumed identifications blur the lineages, generational trauma, and narratives that get passed along through our artistic practice? They approach these curiosities through movement/music improvisation, storytelling, and community research to understand how identity, representation, and culture inform our world. Utilizing co-directing and individual investigations, they bridge their unique artistic experiences to create pieces that reveal our intimate practice through lead-and-follow, speaking while moving, and archival research. As they prioritize both the physical and sonic spaces in their art-making practice, Matthew and Kevin believe that the performance expands beyond the bounds of the “theatre space” and into the spiritual, emotional, and mental being.
