Dragon Stone
Performance, Video 2025
Dragon Stone is an extension of Times River, exploring migrant identity as a state of continuous becoming. Bone fragments collected through mudlarking gradually formed into the shape of a dragon—cultural symbols reforged through foreign materials, identity circulating through cycles of deconstruction and reassembly.
Through triple translation of bone sculpture, rubbing-technique paper, and dancers' bodies, the project activates static remains into afluid metaphor. Dragon Stone does not point toward fixed cultural belonging, but rather a temporary convergence of foreign materials, migrant bodies, and memory through acts of gathering, touching, and witnessing—like the tides, still surging and becoming in the moment of being observed.
Dragon Stone is an extension of Times River, exploring migrant identity as a state of continuous becoming. Bone fragments collected through mudlarking gradually formed into the shape of a dragon—cultural symbols reforged through foreign materials, identity circulating through cycles of deconstruction and reassembly.
Through triple translation of bone sculpture, rubbing-technique paper, and dancers' bodies, the project activates static remains into afluid metaphor. Dragon Stone does not point toward fixed cultural belonging, but rather a temporary convergence of foreign materials, migrant bodies, and memory through acts of gathering, touching, and witnessing—like the tides, still surging and becoming in the moment of being observed.
Scroll to more
Fine copper wire binds the bones, extending the skeletal lines of the dragon, allowing the joints to reveal traces of human intervention while retaining the logic of natural growth. This wrapping technique draws from wire-wrapping methods used in jewellery making; the raw colour of copper wire merges with the bones, providing sufficient flexibility to respond to the dancers' touch and activation.
Choosing the traditional full-form rubbing technique is another recording method rooted in Chinese culture to rub the material memories of foreign lands. This process carries a distinct physicality. During the rubbing process, I must repeatedly press, ink, and smooth the surface. The contact between paper and bone becomes a sensory exchange.
NEXT WORK