A Sky Full of Stars: Body-Positive Workshop by Whiskey Chow

About

This online workshop aims to reset a sense of acceptance, self-appreciation, healing and love, by creating a safe space for all types of bodies and genders to collectively build up a self-adoring narrative via presentation and representation of one’s body. 

Queer Asian artist Whiskey Chow invites UK-based migrant cultural workers to participate and explore the relationship between one’s body and oneself; embracing vulnerability and intimacy. This is a group experiment to self-curate a bodyscape that stands for an unapologetic queer path to alternative beauty.

During the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK, migrants are often overlooked by the governmental support system. As one of the precarious migrant cultural workers herself, Whiskey intends to create a vital space for these unseen bodies to deal with memories, trauma, cultural heritage, and marginalized live experiences. With this ethos and participants’ consent, a new video work will be created: a collective bodyscape of UK migrant cultural workers.

A Sky Full of Stars will take advantage of digital meeting software to create a safe space for participants who will be encouraged to bring one image representing/reflecting their relationship between themselves and their bodies. Those images will work as a shelter allowing participants to express freely, without showing their faces. All visual communication in the workshop will be through still and moving image of one’s body, but participants will have full control of their own agency.

By participating in the workshop, you will have the opportunity to become part of Chow’s final moving image work. To guarantee the ownership of your agency, you will be asked for consent at the end of the workshop.

N.B.

As a candidate, you will be asked two simple questions when you register, then you will be informed later for your acceptance. This selection process does not aim to make things competitive, it is just a way to optimize the experience of all participants and the final outcome of the workshop.

This workshop opens to all under-represented voices, with focus on migrant cultural workers’ body and experiences, but not exclusively. The final decision will be made according to answers from candidates.

A Sky Full of Stars is produced by Queer Art Projects. 

Funded and supported by Artquest through the WFH Residency. The first iteration of this workshop was part of the Returning To Home series of workshops curated by Annie Jael Kwan for performingbordersLIVE20. 

Special thanks to Ruth Holdsworth for initial production support.