Sin Wai Kin, A Dream of Wholeness in Parts (still), 2021, single-channel video, 4K, colour, sound, 23 minutes 3 seconds
Sin Wai Kin
A Dream of Wholeness in Parts
Sin Wai Kin brings fantasy to life through storytelling via moving image, performance, writing, sound and print. Their work draws on the experience of existing between fixed categories, realising fictional narratives to describe real experiences of desire and identification.
A Dream of Wholeness in Parts takes Chuang Tzu’s allegory Dream of the Butterfly (c. 300 bc) as its starting point, in which the ancient Taoist imagines the experience of the senses as a dream. The philosopher dreams so vividly that he is a butterfly that he wakes uncertain which state of consciousness is reality.
Sin Wai Kin, A Dream of Wholeness in Parts, 2021, installation view at Soft Opening, London
Sin’s film follows three characters played by the artist: The Universe and both sides of The Construct’s internalised false dichotomy, each grappling with their surroundings and each other in dreamscapes they journey through and continually wake from.
The exhibition traces the imprints made into facial wipes after Sin removed each character, each day of the film production for A Dream of Wholeness in Parts (2021). A single sculpture, The Universe’s Ornaments (2022), accompanies these works, displaying the wig and butterfly- embellished diamanté necklace worn by the artist as one character in the film. In this context and on view alongside the film, these works expand Sin’s interest in transformation through embodied speculative fictions through the continuous and purposeful performance of multiple selves.
“Every time I put on a face, look at myself and embody that character, it changes my relationship with my body. And when I take that embodiment off, I don’t just change back. The relationships between myself and my audience, or my body and I, has changed me in some way – given me a new perspective and license to be something else. To see existing parts of myself in a new way.”
Images courtesy the artist and Soft Opening, London
Photography Theo Christelis