March 15th 1947. Performance. Puntarenas, Costa Rica, 2019
My paternal grandfather was a university professor who supported a pacific student protest on February 28th 1947 against Chiang Kai Shek and his military’s abusive and totalitarian government recently installed in Taiwan. This era was known as the White Terror. On March 15th, just two weeks after the protest, my Grandfather was taken away by the military and disappeared. It wasn’t until 1997, 50 years after his disappearance, that the documents of his arrest were released and it was confirmed to us that he had been murdered by gunshot and his body tied to weights and thrown into the ocean.
In this performance I intended to transform the traditional Chinese ritual of burning golden paper for the deceased as a way of sending blessings and fortune to the afterlife and sent my grandfather a self portrait in the form of a letter which I cut into paragraphs, tied the pieces to weights and threw them into the Pacific Ocean in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, the first docking place of belonging that my parents encountered when coming to Central America within the Acón Family (second generation immigrants from Canton). If the family members of the deceased that were able to cremate their loved ones are able to send their blessings by burning them, then my grandfather should receive this narration of who I am in the sea, where his body lies.
Writing this self portrait I realized that in order for me to tell him about who I am it was necessary for me to write about my bonds and relationships. Who I am is determined and shaped by that which is outside of my own skin as much as what’s contained within it. It was important for me to understand that my identity is not self standing and it is linked to those whom I love and receive love from. It is something that is weaved, like a spiderweb, like my bond with him who is someone whom I’ve never met, who lived and breathed in a completely different context and time, yet defines who I am in so many ways.
Credits: Photography: David Vargas. Dress: Óscar Ruiz-Schmidt. Obra Gris
