SIDE QUESTING
A satirical, cybernetic study of Lii’s live streaming persona, SIDE QUESTING is a continuation of the artist’s on-going investigation of female archetypes — namely their permutable, often recursive nature when adopted in virtual space. Lii’s reinterpretation of these archetypes through live stream as performance, queries the intrapersonal, at times parasocial, relationship between the streamer and the viewers, or better known as chat.
Supercuts of audio from hours of footage of Lii streaming gaming content are chopped and screwed into a collaged soundscape. A rapid turnstile of different faces of the self respond to an ever-changing environment. Lii opens space for the audience to willingly suspend their disbelief, where a temporary death of her true self is held in purgatory, and displaced by various personas embodied during live streams. Wigs are hung on the wall in a cascade, signifying the eventuality of retiring each persona and avatar, as they dissolve into a multiplicity of new embodiments.
Artist
Pearlyn Lii
Sound Design
Taüs Jafar
Kyle Chang
Production
Hybrid Studio
Pearlyn Lii. SIDE QUESTING. 2023. Sculpture & sonic installation, Chinatown Soup. Courtesy of Alan Tansey, New York.
Pearlyn Lii. SIDE QUESTING. 2023. Sculpture & sonic installation, Chinatown Soup. Courtesy of Alan Tansey, New York.
