Sympathy for a Brutalized Body
Trigger warning: reenactment of violence and assault
Sympathy for a Brualized Body, Screen Capture
Sympathy for a Brualized Body, Gallery View at Jack Straw Cultural Center of Seattle, WA
Sympathy for a Brutalized Body is a video split-screen of B horror movies and slap-and-kiss Thai lakorn (soap operas). Footage on the left screen shows ghosts, stylized in “ancient” Bolan era, haunting and eventually killing men by choking, hanging, and burning them. On the right is footage of the popular slap-and-kiss lakorn, where a man forcefully kisses a woman until she gives in or pushes him away then slaps him.
This video explores distressed bodies and misogyny in media while asking, "Who do you give your sympathy to?"
Sympathy for a Brutalized Body would later become a key component in examining brutalized Asian women in media in connection to the 2021 Atlanta shooting, which is explored in the sequel exhibition, Karmic II.