So and bex are not the same person
We first became friends in 2015. Being two queer and gender non-conforming Chinese people of roughly the same height (Bex is half an inch taller), people kept confusing us for each other even though we had just met. It was both absurd and surprised neither of us. Yet the very things that make us seem similar are what have isolated us from community in the past.
In our conversations with each other, we wondered about the ways the U.S's relationship with war and imperialism shapes the positioning of Chinese masculinity. How our persons stretch to be --at once-- threatening, harmless, and interchangeable. As performance artists, we’ve turned to our creative practice to puzzle through this together.
We're curious where our mirrors of each other will fail, and where they will be transformative.
Both alumni of EMERGENYC—the Hemispheric New York Emerging Performers Program, So and Bex’s first performance together was a part of a partnership with Art in Odd Places. They began developing their collaborative artistic vocabulary at Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), first as participants in the Upstart Program 2017, Space Grantees 2018, and then as Artists in Residence (2019-21). They were selected to show work at The Brick's Trans Theatre Festival in July 2018, Spring 2019 BRIClab residents, and were featured at the Highline's Out of Line series in July 2019. As solo artists, they have been invited to present at theaters, galleries, and universities in Singapore and the U.S., including La MaMa, the National Asian American Theater Company, and 3LD. So + Bex were 2021-22 Jerome Hill Artist Fellows.
