KYLYN Festival Film Premiere | IS/LAND presents Chimera
Tuesday June 18, 2024: 6:30pm to 7:30pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
Chimera is an immersive 15-minute movement-based film, performed by APIA Performance Collective IS/LAND in collaboration with University of Michigan Masters of Science researcher Do Young Kim.
By definition, a Chimera is ‘an organism composed of mixed genetic tissues’ but also, when applied to science, a goal that is ‘that is hoped for but is illusory or impossible to achieve’. Both of these definitions apply to the experiences of AAPI women—how their experiences and complex life identities are vilified and simplified by the white supremacist patriarchy, but moreso, how their achievements are also subject to the glass ceiling, with aspirations and dreams made impossible by existing social standards. Is it possible for AAPI women in this country to fully integrate into the fabric of Western society, or will they always be subjected to being othered?
This filmed performance then confronts and questions these two conceptual definitions through an immersive sound/optics environment. By creating a space where movement intersects with propulsive electronic sounds while enveloped by light, Chimera creates a space for AAPI women to liberate themselves from societal constraints and fully embody their complex life experiences—as both a form of exaltation and transformation, converging into an apex of ecstatic catharsis.
The projection backgrounds for Chimera will consist of optical imaging selected by Kim, exemplifying the cellular transformation of AAPI women through the performance experience.Also screened will be IS/LAND films, including Synodic (5 min), Lost Constellation (13 min), and C-OMMON(S) (3 min).Join members of IS/LAND and composer/DJ Whodat for a Q&A after the screening.
(I'm in Lost Constellation, and unexpectedly on the panel, too, lol)
