LBM Exclusive: Shui – Resonance of Water (Audio-Visual Theater Project)

This past May I had the pleasure of documenting Shui – Resonance of Water, the latest audio-visual theater project from rising artist Chai Mi, who I first noticed back in 2013 with her performance project The Sparrow and the Raven. Since then the artist has been busy, hitting up festivals across the globe, and dabbling in every art form imaginable. And on Shui, she has outdone herself once again – a multimedia feast for the ears and eyes that found Chai Mi teaming up with sound artists thruoutin and Anita Pan to create an ‘experimental theater’ exploring the theme of water in all its intricacies. I’ve never seen or heard anything quite like it and I can only hope that the project gets taken on the road in the near future. Enjoy the preview below and read up on the full synopsis as well as browse through some screen shots below. Also, for you Chinese readers out there – here’s an interview done with the three performers.

《《《氵》》》 RESONANCE OF WATER｜Audio-Visual Theater Project ｜Tralier from Chai Mi on Vimeo.

The Artist, Chai Mi, launched the experimental performance about “water” in 2015, and created a multimedia theater together with two sound artists. Using the self-created water devices, they perform sound production, framing and image making on the scene. The water, as the media and topic of the entire performance, is combined with the devices, behaviors, live music, impromptu singing and live images. The performance mines various images caused by the water, creates an abstract and poetic experience of images and sound, and explore the multi-relationship between man and environment. According to different forms and sizes of the water, the performance is divided into three movements: Drip, Flow and Surge, working together to present a special conversation created by the water.