Artist Statement

The role of translation, the passage between gesture, body and voice, the shift from Chinese into English and back again, the relationship between live performance and the result from the action. Always movement across surfaces, entering and exiting backwards and forwards. I can not settle on one point, I am in flux, restless.

My name is Xie Rong. I grew up in ChengDu. The pandas’ home in south-west of China, I moved to UK when I was 19. In my work I take on the role of director, performer, narrator,and filmmaker. I collecting and collaging encounters, voices, texts, images and objects from my culture roots in China and my daily life in UK. Through the mediums of performance and painting. I explore the intrinsic and complex relationship between violence, beauty, and vulnerability, re-examining how these antipodal constructs impact ideas of the ‘self’ and the body. My narrative is rooted with my family history. I explore my individual memory that is deeply embodied with China’s complex society – one that had undergone a series of philosophical, ideological and political transformations. I often invite viewers to participate, drawing strength from the audiences’ emotional vulnerability and feelings of uneasiness to complete the performance as a whole. Here, my emotions become entwined with the audiences’, creating a symbiotic relationship based on control and power.

Juxtaposing English narration with Chinese traditional songs, I play with my identity and my difficult childhood. I explore the territory between gesture and stillness, between my past and present, between abstract mark making and personal story telling. Between public space and intimate privacy.

Contact Email: echo@echomorgan.com