03/17/2023
Yet another incredibly talented artist, Madeline Seto, featured in don’t get cute with me!! Come see the show for the final time tonight 7-9!
Madeline Seto (1996, Queens, NY, she/they) asks the question 'How does the diasporic body glitch, displaced from home?'
Their work seeks to explore this question through transgressive assemblage that ranges in the form of performance, sculpture, fiber, video art, to jacquard weaving. Guided by traditional Chinese medicine principles, they are deeply engaged in observing the transformation of matter/circulation of qi, independently studying homesteading practices, fermentation, horticulture, experimental gastronomy, and researching biomaterial fabrication.
They use their practice as a way to navigate intergenerational slippage, tracing cultural data lost between family generations, immigration, and environment. As a 2.5 gen Toisanese-Cantonese, Seto grew up surrounded by mixed signals from the East and West, with staggered stages of immigration/naturalization in their family, born into a time pulled between digital and analog shifts. These cultural ideals often contradicted one another, destabilizing tradition. This led them to become hyper-fixated on acquiring domestic skills, including sewing, milk-making, gardening, weaving, cooking, and baking. No longer tied to Western or Eastern traditions of homemaking, these practices inadvertently become queered from their origins as they are practiced by a diasporic body. Through reinterpreting materiality, they reject the flattening and commodification of the East Asian femme body. She reclaims her agency by disrupting space, and shattering the illusion of permanence; presenting a sweetness no longer safe for consumption.
Featured stills from video performance 'how to make the cutest cupcake in the world (asmr)'
Cinematography by Jade Wong
