Sin Wai Kin 單慧乾
The Story Changing / Matrix 284 Gallery, Berkeley Art Museum / Berkeley, California / Dec 13, 2023 – Mar 10, 2024 / DeWitt Cheng / The Story Changing, the first US museum show by Sin Wai Kin, the Canadian-born, London-based performance artist turned filmmaker, consists of two videos in a small exhibit in the Matrix 284 Gallery and the adjoining hallway at California’s Berkeley Art Museum. The title evokes the postmodernist artist’s concerns with narrative and language in the formation of identity, which they consider to be fluid and culturally determined rather than innate; it is also self-determined and performative, in line with the queer-scene drag shows that fascinated Sin—a recent nominee for the Turner Prize—as a young art student in London in 2009. “I think drag is like a magnifying glass,” they say. “To make something more extreme is to look at it more closely.” The curator, Victoria Sung, interviewing Sin, adds, “Language is such a powerful tool in terms of how it constructs our worlds, but also how it can constrict our worlds.” …
