0:00:06.460,0:00:08.080
[JES FAN][br]Once you've seen them,

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they're lodged in your mind.

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Especially thinking of them as[br]one of the first few representations

0:00:15.820,0:00:19.080
of the Chinese person as a subject.

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There's a medical missionary[br]called Peter Parker

0:00:28.259,0:00:32.940
who traveled to Canton to perform[br]the surgical incision of tumors

0:00:32.940,0:00:36.410
in the early nineteenth century.

0:00:36.410,0:00:40.520
Lam Qua was a really celebrated painter [br]at the time.

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He was most famous for painting portraitures.

0:00:47.280,0:00:49.880
But I suppose that Lam Qua was also celebrated

0:00:49.880,0:00:52.730
by how accurate he can paint his sitters.

0:00:52.730,0:00:54.920
He's known for this one quote saying,

0:00:54.920,0:00:57.560
"What eye no see, no can do."

0:01:05.220,0:01:07.560
There's something about Chinese-ness here.

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Thinking, like,[br]how did Chinese-ness become a word?

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What are the technologies that's involved[br]in creating this idea of "the other"?

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Why does the shoulder need to be bare?

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Like, the braid of hair is placed.

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It's just so seductive,[br]and I was wondering if that kind of seduction

0:01:36.360,0:01:39.259
has to come in a way that you're able to see

0:01:39.260,0:01:43.340
the sitter as a fellow human.

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["Jes Fan: Infectious Beauty"]

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I think it made me really try to understand[br]the idea of beauty and seduction.

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I think my work has a lot to do with seduction.

0:02:11.640,0:02:13.520
Nowadays, beauty is really flat.

0:02:14.240,0:02:16.760
There's only one emotion you can emote on[br]social media,

0:02:16.760,0:02:18.760
which is the double tap, right?[br][LAUGHS]

0:02:18.760,0:02:20.460
That there's only a heart shape.

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When something is beautiful,[br]it's just a flat heart.

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But then, when you think of[br]beauty in the past,

0:02:34.940,0:02:36.840
it's beauty and the sublime.

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It has to come with this suspension--

0:02:40.700,0:02:41.960
this fear.

0:02:48.200,0:02:50.400
It also meant, in the past,

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to describe something that was so beautiful

0:02:54.000,0:02:56.200
that it almost makes you want to puke.

0:02:56.200,0:02:56.800
[LAUGHS]

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Originally, I grew up in Hong Kong.

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It's very oppressive, being queer there,

0:03:12.920,0:03:16.140
just not being able to see yourself reflected[br]in society,

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nor even within just

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being able to see happy, queer adults--

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or queer adults in general.

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It's kind of not being able to see a future[br]extension of yourself.

0:03:35.260,0:03:37.920
I had a really rough few years growing up,

0:03:37.920,0:03:40.820
trying to find who I can be.

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[JULIE WOLF][br]So my understanding of the piece

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is that you make it so that it's a glass shape[br]of something.

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And then, you add the melanin to the piece,

0:04:04.784,0:04:06.804
and then fill it with silicon afterwards,[br]correct?

0:04:06.804,0:04:07.804
[FAN][br]Yeah.

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[WOLF][br]What we want to make is melanin.

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It's the final physical form that we're going[br]to make.

0:04:13.164,0:04:15.004
This is called L-DOPA.

0:04:15.874,0:04:19.544
In this case, L-DOPA is a really[br]unstable molecule.

0:04:19.544,0:04:21.854
If you expose it to light

0:04:21.854,0:04:24.074
or ambient temperature,

0:04:24.074,0:04:26.964
it will start to do something called autopolymerizing.

0:04:26.964,0:04:28.914
It's going to start to make a polymer,

0:04:28.914,0:04:30.914
which is a repeated subunit,

0:04:30.914,0:04:32.984
which is going to be related to that melanin.

0:04:33.984,0:04:37.064
So what we're going to do is to make the conditions

0:04:37.064,0:04:40.344
as unstable for L-DOPA as possible,

0:04:40.344,0:04:43.724
so that we can bypass the biological process

0:04:43.724,0:04:45.944
and just get right to the melanin.

0:04:51.184,0:04:52.424
So it's not as dark,

0:04:52.434,0:04:54.464
but you can see that[br]there's the flakes in there.

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[FAN][br]So crazy that they're warm.

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[WOLF][br]Yeah.

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[FAN][br]It would be great to have them...

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something that you can identify or trigger,

0:05:03.944,0:05:06.134
and sort of hope that is that.

0:05:06.134,0:05:07.864
Because the plates you gave me

0:05:07.864,0:05:09.824
with the E. coli,

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they look exactly like molds.

0:05:12.044,0:05:15.404
So let's hope that these will grow happily

0:05:16.824,0:05:20.264
and into more slurry-like, you know?

0:05:43.004,0:05:45.643
A lot of what I'm trying to do with

0:05:45.643,0:05:47.823
what we consider as gendered materials,

0:05:47.824,0:05:49.384
or racialized materials,

0:05:49.384,0:05:52.504
they're just really, really absurd.

0:05:58.004,0:05:59.504
It's like a cooking show.

0:05:59.504,0:06:00.744
I have semen,

0:06:00.744,0:06:01.804
blood,

0:06:02.204,0:06:03.144
melanin,

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and pee.

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[LAUGHS]

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So at the time I was thinking a lot about[br]how race,

0:06:10.554,0:06:11.923
especially in the U.S.,

0:06:11.923,0:06:13.904
is seen as infectious.

0:06:13.904,0:06:16.324
Think about China and coronavirus.

0:06:16.673,0:06:18.944
Think about SARS and being in Hong Kong.

0:06:18.944,0:06:22.644
And think about Jim Crow era,[br]not sharing bodies of water.

0:06:23.604,0:06:26.304
That idea of it being infected.

0:06:32.184,0:06:36.544
These days in Asia, the beauty is smooth,

0:06:36.544,0:06:39.024
has no corners,[br]does not repulse.

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There's something about...

0:06:41.534,0:06:44.573
doing this is subverting that balance,

0:06:44.573,0:06:47.484
it's showing the labor to acquire that smoothness.

0:06:47.484,0:06:50.764
And by showing it,[br]it looks like these infectious rings.

0:06:53.284,0:06:57.364
But then, also the materials[br]that's carried in these bulbous forms

0:06:57.374,0:07:00.194
are actually semen that's decaying.

0:07:00.194,0:07:02.804
I find that very funny.

0:07:02.804,0:07:05.844
[LAUGHS]

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It's very much about[br]having forms fitting into each other

0:07:14.204,0:07:18.564
and somehow evoking a sense of this uncanniness,

0:07:18.564,0:07:22.684
but simultaneously so erotic[br]that you can't stop.

0:07:22.684,0:07:25.144
But to be attracted to it,

0:07:26.324,0:07:28.104
that eroticness

0:07:29.004,0:07:30.144
seduces you.

0:07:33.404,0:07:34.963
It's beauty in the gloss,

0:07:34.964,0:07:37.954
and the possibility to see your own reflection[br]in it.

0:07:38.904,0:07:39.904
At the same time,

0:07:39.904,0:07:42.524
you're actually staring at something that[br]repulses you,

0:07:42.534,0:07:46.204
that actually is considered infectious

0:07:46.204,0:07:47.464
or unclean.

0:07:57.364,0:08:01.684
My therapist says that I'm so familiar with[br]oppression

0:08:01.684,0:08:05.874
that danger and risk and oppression makes[br]me feel at home.

0:08:05.874,0:08:09.604
So I slave myself away in the studio.

0:08:09.604,0:08:12.634
Or, like, I deprive myself of pleasure

0:08:12.634,0:08:15.634
because I'm not oppressed[br]as a queer being here.

0:08:15.634,0:08:16.624
[LAUGHS]

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So I oppress myself now.[br][LAUGHS]

0:08:24.444,0:08:26.944
Because I can't go back if I fail.