Mira Mann

The liminoid membranes of Mira Mann’s multipart edition create a vortex in time, within which mongrels, larvae, moths, foreigners, others, and hybrids all assemble for transtemporal resistance. As creatures of the threshold, they are neither here nor there, neither one nor the other. The liminality of their cocoon indicates a process of radical transformation and potential turning points, a betwixt and between of non-fixable positions. The speculative storyboard connects fragments taken from the script of the artist’s most recent performance, SSSSUUUU-GUUUUNG-GGGGAAAA, with diverse research materials on pansori. First developed in the 17th century in close connection with the ceremonies and narrative singing of mudang shamans, this genre of epic and musical storytelling was over time also interpreted by kisaeng (Korean courtesans, entertainers and sex workers of the Joseon dynasty and their descendants). Set pieces taken from these engagements with authorship, Asian-diasporic experiences, and colonial exploitation overlap in the edition’s various panels with scenographies of non-human narratives of plant and insect migration. The flying seeds of the so-called “tree of heaven” appear alongside measurements and written descriptions of silk moths, which were first brought to Europe from Asia in 1751. In the transgressive assemblage of the edition, such classifications mutate into “wild” subjectifications, spinning a visual narrative that is without any category.