- Source: The Penetrative, The Perceptive, And The Spontaneous
The Penetrative, The Perceptive, And The Spontaneous is a 2001 conceptual performance by Korean artist Tsui Kuang-Yu.
Name
Kuang-Yu is performing absurd actions such as going straight into a wall, having objects thrown at him, or puking; all set in the near or around vicinity of the urban world (public space).
= The Penetrative
=The Penetrative shows the subject hitting face-to-face against a tree, a wall, an electric pole, a cow in the field, a glass wall of a convenient store, the McDonald clown, the stock market television wall, a mail box, the door of a subway train, a fire engine, etc., and bouncing back without any damage on either side, the subject or the object.
= The Perceptive
=In The Perceptive, the subject stands still while various objects flying on the back of his head, and he misses most of the guess about what these objects are, even though they exist as part of his daily life, be it hair dryer, chair, bucket, book, comb, wires, teddy bear, wine bottle, garbage bin, vacuum machine, etc.
= The Spontaneous
=In The Spontaneous the inner strengths come out involuntarily as vomit wherever he is, in the rice field, on the street, or over on the skywalk. In the repetitive vomiting, there seems to be some constant nausea over which the subject has no control
Impact
Kuang-Yu's work is as much as like a creature using mimicry to blend into its surroundings as he uses slapstick moments to allude to a social misfit (or perhaps a creature from outer space) trying to find a variety of adaptation strategies and possibilities of different modes of life in the existing living environment.
Tsui's videos in general and this work specifically show the resemblance to short slapstick films, for example, in the usage of exaggerated acting which often implies mild cruelty and pain with no real physical injury, or, the everyday situation turned somewhat unrealistic and impossible. Medium shots are employed to focus on the acting in the staged situation and on its relationship to the immediate environment. To enlarge the dramatic effects, Tsui adds some documentary flavour to his slapsticks, for instance, by himself acting in amateuristic ways, with awkwardness and clumsiness, and in everyday costume.
His work also refers to and satirises ideas originating in Shao-lin mysticism. In the perceptive where we see him attempting to name the various objects that are being thrown at the back of his head is an imitation of a Shao-lin initiation test. By taking the test out of its religious setting, the video invites you to consider the sometimes equally difficult 'initiation tests' involved in functioning in ordinary public life.
