Kayla Tange channels emotion and Asian community in ‘Sacred Wounds’
Fourth-year art student Kayla Tange created her performance art show Sacred Wounds to transform Asian traditions, highlighting themes such as identity and sexuality.
(Courtesy of Luka Fisher) "Equal parts burlesque and social inquiry, Kayla Tange’s performance art is breaking walls and building communities.
A fourth-year art student, Tange has been working in performance art for 15 years. Since transferring to UCLA in 2019, she said she has been exploring other mediums like installation, sculpture and video. While experimenting with different methods of making art, Tange said she focuses on performance in her online show “Sacred Wounds,” which began in September with the goal of transforming notions of Asian tradition.
“We really wanted to create a space for Asian performers to subvert the stereotypes that we were experiencing our whole lives, to present works that involve ancestral healing, eroticism (and) ritual,” Tange said.
Adopted from Korea and raised in a Japanese American household, Tange said she has experienced pressure from the model minority myth, a stereotype which places certain standards on Asian Americans and has contributed to the misrepresentation and censoring of conversations about sexuality. Through her work, Tange hopes to shine light on the topic of sexuality, which she said may be taboo for Asian households. — David Egan, Jun. 6, 2021
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Daily Bruin website.
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