MY BODY IS AN ARCHIVE, NOT A CAGE
My Body Is An Archive, Not A Cage, recounts the triumphant story of a cyber seraph—from the future—who has endured years of microaggressions. With her last breath, she comes back to the present to tell her story. The Cyber Seraph is inspired by the Anti-Electra archetype.
Artist, Director
Pearlyn Lii
Team
Nicolas Croes (Director), Jesus Torrivilla (Editorial Development, Story), Galia Eibenschutz (Performer), Taüs Jafar (Music), Santiago Camacho (AC), Giuseppe Ayanegui (Costume), Jon-Luke Fillippi (Build), Hsiao-Ying Yang (Build Assist), Mariana Palacios (Hair), Andres Mañon (MUA), Sara Moreno (PM), Elena Sotos (Assistant), Federico Cortés (Guide & Translation)
‘My Body is An Archive, Not A Cage,’ casts a possible future, through the filter of magical realism, based on the state of the digital space today.
Before getting her wings, the Cyber Seraph was a radical digital theorist who used to park her motorcycle at the university’s forefront. Students knew her from the classroom and from the rundown warehouses where she used to play as DJ Elektra. She made herself a name in the underground mastering analog synthesizers with traditional instruments — her most legendary one was a modded harp that sounded like hell and heaven merged for a night in a dirty basement. Her livestreams gave her a cult following.
An electronic producer and a theorist are not different in method: they sample a tradition to build a future. In her work as an academic, she founded “The feminine macro-archive of male micro-aggressions”, a collection of testimonies of violence against women in the public digital and physical space. More than a dusty collection of words, that archive became an excuse for women to come to her and tell their stories. In her DJ booth, she was a redeemer of pain who turned all troubles into euphoria; in her university cubicle, she was a confessor and a gentle soul to lean on.
Installation view of “Pearlyn Lii: My Body is an Archive, Not a Cage,” 2022, JO-HS Mexico City. Image captured by Nicolás Croes, courtesy of nonstudio, New York.
