Whiskey Chow

Lives and works in London, UK

Artist statement

WHISKEY CHOW Whiskey Chow is a London-based artist, activist and Chinese drag king. Chow’s practice engages with political issues and related topics: from queer(ing) masculinity, problematising the nation-state across geographic boundaries, interrogating stereotypical projections of Chinese/Asian identity, to enabling empowerment by queer-reading ancient Chinese myth. Her work is interdisciplinary: performance, moving image, experimental sound, installation, and experimental printmaking. Chow’s curatorial and pedagogical practice also both feed into her “artivist” ambition. The word “artivist” means making art with a heart of activism, continuously negotiating with systematic inequality and making space for marginalised minorities. As artist-curator, Chow launched, curated and performed in ‘Queering Now 酷兒鬧’ 2020; a curatorial programme amplifying and championing queer Chinese/Asian diaspora voices in the West. Trained in MA Performance and graduated from the Royal College of Art, Chow has also been teaching there as an Associate Lecturer since 2019. Chow’s involvement in feminist and LGBTQ activism in China in her early 20s (‘For Vaginas’ Sake 將陰道獨白到底 (2013)’ - original Chinese version of The Vagina Monologues; curated the first Chinese LGBTQ music festival ‘Lover Comrades Concert 愛人同志音樂會 (2013)’ in Guangzhou) has deeply shaped her creative approach: informed by her queer migrant identity and art-activism; it is intersectional, diasporic, and offers a non-Western...

Artwork