Melbourne-based artist Scotty So is combining elements of drag performance, singing, video and object-based art in his new exhibition.
These Bodies of Video Works is launching on Tuesday, February 14 and running until Wednesday, June 14 at the Footscray Community Arts Centre
The recipient of the Emerging Artist Residency prize in the 2021 Footscray Art Prize, So’s work deals with themes such as identity, gender and the body.
He said the exhibition also includes videos of him performing in drag as Scarlett Sohungson after learning how to sing as a countertenor.
“A lot of them are related to my body,” So said.
“I recorded my own songs.”
Incorporating singing and lip syncing, the works aim to challenge traditional notions of the performer and the performed, and the relationship between imitation and truth, as well as the dualities of camp and sincerity and the humour and tragedy of performance and self-expression.
So said one of the works titled Sleep Apnea Beauty depicts beautiful women experiencing sleep apnea.
“It’s about making something beautiful and tragic,” he said.
So said one of his other works depicts him as a choir boy singing a Cher song in a church.
“I grew up in Hong Kong in a Catholic family,” he said.
“This work is a way to revisit my singing lessons as a young boy.”
Another work features So humming Kylie Minogue’s ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ in a Chinese-style garment made from the Australian flag.
So said he was both excited and nervous for the exhibition.
“It’s quite scary actually,” he said.
“This is my first time showing it to others.”
Matthew Sims
