Painting with movement
Where the Body Paints
Movement collaboration with Isa Huiling Liu
This project unleashes the creativity beyond the hands of an artist. When I allowed my body to paint, the female experience just poured out from this physical container onto the wooden surface. As the fresh red image starts to emerge on the floor, it inspired the movement of 2 female dancers to express themselves.
Photo by Hedi Nong
The project started with my friend J texting me at midnight on a Sunday.
"Which flooring should I choose?"
"Are you replacing your floor?"
"Yea."
"Can I have it for a few days before you remove the current one?"
"Sure."
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As the floor is set to be taken down in a week, the project draws a parallel comparison between the floor's cycles of objects and the female body's regular periodic renewal. This transitional week between the old and the new becomes a metaphor for the body’s own cycles of renewal and transformation. The old floor filled with marks becomes a physical and symbolic space, capturing the fleeting yet enduring essence of life’s rhythms.
This week-long painting process delves into the intimate connection between the female body, its cycles, and the act of creation. On a 25m² floor, two female dancers bring the work to life through fluid, dynamic movements, and the artist's paint brushes as extensions of their bodies. Their gestures translate the rhythm and flow of the bleeding experience into vivid, expressive marks, celebrating the strength, vulnerability, and cyclical nature of the female experience.
Through movement, space, and material, this work reclaims an often-overlooked narrative, transforming an intimate, bodily process into a monumental expression of beauty, power, and cyclical continuity.
The project ended on the second Sunday, exactly a week from the starting day. The painted floor was then taken down for renovation.