What's the point of preserving oneself?, 2023
Video performance with dried flowers and plaster
02:11 Runtime
What's the point of preserving oneself?, 2023
Live performance with dried flowers and plaster
A prologue to the live performance, What's the point of remembering oneself? showcases the forceful shedding of the persona, now having taken on the form of a dried plaster cloth. The presumably 'dead' persona sticking to the 'reborn' Zahra, is awakened by the cultivation of the love of hopelessness and the destruction of a lively spirit. Initially indifferent, they become more enraged and disgusted by their old persona, which sees them grotesquely tearing apart the plaster from their body. The performance ends on a cliffhanger, where their attempt in trying to shed off their old persona successfully will be continued in the live performance.
What's the point of preserving oneself? delves into the artist's confrontation with their shattered former self. Paranoia takes hold as they grapple with their past, using symbolic gestures like burning affirmations and drowning in self-destructive narratives, often conveyed through the usage of dried flowers. Initially passive, the performance intensifies in violence as they endeavour to obliterate their past, reducing their persona to unidentifiable fragments. Desperation and frustration are the predominant emotions in this portrayal of resentment toward their distant history. Ultimately, the artist recognizes that their past imprints have significantly shaped their current, anger-fueled self.
Zahra Azizufaira Adrianz (b. 1999, Indonesia) is an aspiring student artist currently residing in Singapore. Their primary interests lie in the female body, the dark side of humanity, and mental illness through their own experience or what they have studied. Although they are now experimenting with different mediums such as batik, their work has always been more sculpturally based.