To coincide with their first solo exhibition in the UK, All Trace Is Gone, No Clamour for a Kiss at V.O Curations, Chris Zhongtian Yuan will present a new performance with video and sound artist Olukemi Lijadu. During the development of their film, Yuan engaged in a series of conversations with Lijadu, during which they exchanged sonic and textual references relevant to the project and personal experiences connected with belonging, community and identity. The performance will be a continuation of this exchange, during which the two artists will share and respond to excerpts of texts and music, and how they marry to their work and practices.

Developed during their four-month residency at V.O Curations, Chris Zhongtian Yuan’s first solo show in the UK features a new film, drawing, and a series of ceramic works. Through sung words, foregrounded ghosts, softness as empowerment, and imagined dialogues as corporeal connections, Yuan explores the tenderness and cruelty of migration, drawing from one’s relations to others, to faraway places, to past and future. The film features footage shot on 16mm film camera, animation and archival materials. Structured as an intimate conversation between two individuals, it is divided into five chapters: Mother; A Love Story; The Tower; Unknown Land; Haunted Island. The dialogue between the two characters appears only on screen, as the film is led by a sonic narrative – a score composed for the work by British trumpeter Kevin G. Davy. The artist extends the visual language used in the film through ceramic sculptures and large-scale drawing that are composed of the film’s script and elements of animation. All the works explore the correlation of identity and sound in the history of migrations, from both personal and historical perspectives.

All Trace Is Gone, No Clamour for a Kiss is co-commissioned by FLAMIN and V.O Curations; supported through FLAMIN Fellowship 2021-22 and V.O Curations Autumn 2021 Residency; additional production support from not/nowhere; supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.