The most uncomfortable moment is when people joke about something and you are the only one who cannot laugh, because the joke is actually about you. Sometimes, “jokes” aren’t enough to justify the weight of certain actions.
Conversations, two channel video installation, 17:23, 2019
In Conversations (2019), people using the hashtag nohomo were asked the questions: “what does #nohomo mean to you?” or “why did you use #nohomo on this post?” If they respond, the conversation was initiated. I was curious to see what they would say or how they would react if I tell them I am a gay man and was actually offended by their use of #nohomo. Some were upset and argued, some heard me out, some apologized, and one even offered encouragement. Further conversations lead to questions as such: What is the boundary between friendship and love among men? How should I react to these jokes as a gay man? Am I too serious? How can we communicate amidst of our differences?
mailto:male, found image, text on mirror, cardboard, 2018 ~ ongoing
mailto:male is an ongoing project on the Instagram account @mail2male. So far, nine exaggerated homo-romantic fictional narratives were created as rereadings of found images on Instagram posts under the hashtag nohomo. The fictional narratives were based on a combination of my personal experiences and information embedded in the above-mentioned found posts. These information include everything from context of the image posted, the tagged location, to comments and other hashtags.
installation view