Event

From Its Mouth Came a River of High-End Residential Appliances

With WangShui 7:00 p.m. (doors open at 6:45) 264 Canal Street, 3W, New York, New York $5 suggested donation, free for members

Feng shui, a geomancy practice meant to harmonize one’s life with the surrounding environment for the ideal flow of qi or life force, was banned in China in 1949 following the founding of the People’s Republic. During the Cultural Revolution, when feng shui practitioners were beaten and their works burned, many fled to Taiwan and Hong Kong—the latter sometimes is referred to as the feng shui capital of the world.

For From Its Mouth Came a River of High-End Residential Appliances, Jon Wang traveled to Hong Kong to research contemporary feng shui practices, including the city’s dragon gates: a series of rectangular holes in high-rises designed to allow dragons to travel from the mountains to the sea to drink and bathe. From Its Mouth sees Wang enact a live feng shui intervention for the Triple Canopy office, where various objects and characters negotiate their relationships with geomancy, remote-selves, and therianthropy (the mythical ability to shape-shift) as a drone’s-eye-view recording takes the audience through the city’s gates.

From Its Mouth Came a River of High-End Residential Appliances is part of Triple Canopy’s Vanitas issue, which explores contemporary meditations on mortality as well as the delights, delusions, and pressures of fleshly existence. This project was commissioned as part of Triple Canopy’s 2016 call for proposals.

Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. In order to ensure that events are accessible and comfortable, we’ll open the doors at 6:30 p.m. and strictly limit admittance to our legal capacity. Please check Triple Canopy’s Facebook and Twitter accounts for updates, as we’ll indicate if events are sold out.

Triple Canopy’s venue is located at 264 Canal Street, 3W, near several Canal Street subway stations. Our floor is accessible by elevator (63" × 60" car, 31" door) and stairway. Due to the age and other characteristics of the building, our bathrooms are not ADA-accessible, though several such bathrooms are located nearby. If you have specific questions about access, please write at least three days before the event and we will make every effort to accommodate you.

Participants
  • WangShui is a New York-based artist & filmmaker who has exhibited and screened work internationally at venues including New York Film Festival, SculptureCenter, the Shed, the Julia Stoschek Collection, International Film Festival Rotterdam, EMPAC, Triple Canopy, Images Festival, the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, and the Jim Thompson Art Center (Bangkok).