GLIMMER
2024, Digital Installation
Glimmer is an interactive installation using Xbox Kinect, inspired by anime magical girl transformation sequences. Reflecting upon the hyper-aesthetisation, commodification and objectification of Asian femininity within the popular aesthetics of anime and kawaii. Considering the artist’s experience growing up mixed race (Chinese/British) in the 90s seeking out images of Asian identity via popular media and how the undeniably alluring yet heavily mediated imagery of 90s anime shaped her ideas of self, beauty and cultural identity. Presenting an experience where the viewer finds themselves crystalized in the liminal state of transformation, caught between normality and magic, between physical and digital, it encourages viewers to embody and consider the experience of the Asiatic female as a hyper-aestheticised form.
Commissioned by Somerset House Trust.
Audio by Ben Dixon
Kinect Development Ben Neal (Psicon Lab)
Photos by Dan Pluck and Sian Fan