Examining Portrayals

So far in Unit 3, we have thought about how to break down false dichotomies that fragment human identities and divide people from the environment. We have also begun to reconsider what ‘power’ looks like. Something that has a great deal of influence on society – for better or worse – is film and television. They both reflect and reproduce ideas about the world. As a result, they are a useful ‘gauge’ of the dominant narratives surrounding race, power, and human-environment relations. At the same time, we know that storytelling can be incredibly subversive. We tell stories so we can change them, rewriting the scripts we’ve been given to include all the characters and create more justice-filled endings.

This week’s Learning Log explores who tell stories, how. After critiquing mainstream media portrayals, a recorded performance by and conversation with transnational Asian artists addresses how art can be an avenue for community-building and conversation-starting on issues of identity, belonging, and power.

“When Afro-Cuban artist Harmonia Rosales re-imagined Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam as the Creation of God and painted both God and the first ‘Man’ as black women, it left the world shaking in its Eurocentric narratives...” (review by Lauren Mitchell)

Ever since she began her art career, Harmonia Rosales’ main artistic concern has been focused on Black female empowerment in Western culture. Her paintings depict and honour the African diaspora. The artist is entirely open to the ebb and flow of contemporary society which she seeks to reimagine in new forms of aesthetic beauty, snuggled somewhere between pure love and ideological counter-hegemony.

As a young girl, the Renaissance Masters’ impeccable skill and composition fascinated her, but she could never relate because they depicted primarily a white male hierarchy and the idealised subordinated woman immersed in Eurocentric conception of beauty. Much of her work is a response to that combination of appreciation and alienation. Her message is not to create an ideal or to simply copy, but rather to create a sense of harmony, a yin to the yang. The Black female bodies in her paintings is the memory of her ancestors, expressed in a way to heal and promote self-love.

Nadia Latif is a theatre maker and film director. She trained as a director at RADA under Bill Gaskill. She works exclusively in new writing, and has worked for buildings & companies including the Almeida, Royal Shakespeare Company, National, Bush, Theatre503 and Arcola.

The BFI funded her first short WHITE GIRL, a horror about white feminism, which is in competition at LFF and is developing two features, one with the BFI/Film4 and Dominic Buchanan, and another with Protagonist. Latif also writes articles, often about the intersections of race, gender and popular culture.

Leila Latif is a writer, broadcaster, chef and culture magpie. She is a regular contributor to Little White Lies, Frieze, Total Film, Radio 4’s Front Row and the BBC World Service’s The Arts Hour. She has appeared in print for many other publications, hosted events for the BFI, and appeared on BBC1 and Lebron James’ Instagram.

Latif grew up in Khartoum, went to school in Brighton, and currently lives in London with her husband, two children, a thriving sourdough starter, and a prized blu-ray of Ganja & Hess. Leila has started work on a book and now has much more empathy for Jack Torrance.

Andrew Tejada is an NYC native so there’s a 90 percent chance this article was written on the subway. Andrew writes extensively on diversity, the DC and Marvel Cinematic Universes, and visual culture for Tor.com, WatchMojo, and MsMojo. When he’s not writing or consuming movies/TV, Andrew is pitching his Static Shock screenplay to anyone who’ll listen.

Tejada also writes and publishes as Arete 619, producing content like a video analysis of diversity in the Harry Potter film franchise. More of Andrew’s projects and words can be found on Facebook at “Arete Writes Things”.

Alex Ho, Co-Director and Composer

Alex Ho is a British-Chinese composer based in London. Winner of the George Butterworth Award 2020, Alex has had pieces performed and commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Radio 3, Royal Opera House, National Opera Studio, Music Theatre Wales, and more. Alex studied Music at Oxford University and graduated with first-class honours in 2016 before completing a master’s in composition at Cambridge University in 2017 where he was awarded the Arthur Bliss Prize in Composition for his final portfolio. He is currently studying for a doctorate at the Royal College of Music funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Julia Cheng, Co-Director and Choreographer (Ye Xian)

Julia Cheng is a creative director, choreographer and dance artist with an impressive portfolio of works presented nationally and internationally. She is currently a supported artist with Bedford Creative Arts and University of Bedfordshire. for 2021. Cheng was appointed as Resident Choreographer 2020 for Royal Academy of Dance and has been a judge and mentor for BBC Young Dancer and mentor for the biggest UK Hip Hop Festival, Breakin’ Convention, as well as recipient of runner-up prize for Hip Hop Dance Futures Award 2019.

Julia has worked with Chinese Arts Now for the past 6 years which is an organisation championing British East-Asian artists.

Keith Pun, Countertenor (Fish/King)

Born in Hong Kong, Keith Pun studied singing at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and at the Royal College of Music. Frequently in demand on the recital and concert platforms, Keith has appeared at the National Gallery and St John Smith Square in the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Hong Kong and Japan.

Pun is a versatile countertenor whose repertoire ranges from baroque to contemporary. He performed the role Chai Ping in  The Original Chinese Conjuror by Raymond Yiu for Leeds Opera Festival in 2018. He also performed as a soloist for the Pulitzer prize-winning opera Angel’s Bone by Duyun  in Hong Kong New Vision Arts Festival 2018 and Beijing Music Festival 2019. In 2019, he participated in the world premiere production of Beauty and Sadness by Elena Langer conducted by Gergely Madaras.

Naomi Woo, Dramaturg

Naomi Woo is a conductor, composer, and pianist noted for her work as a socially-engaged artist and educator. As Assistant Conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Naomi programmes educational concerts with a focus on community engagement. She is also the first Music Director of Sistema Winnipeg, a music programme for social change in the city’s North End. A commitment to using music to imaginatively transform the world runs through all of Naomi’s work, including her doctoral thesis about The Practicality of the Impossible.

Naomi completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar. She has also studied mathematics, philosophy, and music at Yale College, the Yale School of Music, and Université de Montréal.

Daniel Shao, Flute (Step-Sibling 1)

Daniel Shao studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London, after graduating from Oxford University and the Purcell School, winning the Felsenstein Leaver’s Award. He is currently Associate Member with the Philharmonia and has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony, Oxford Philharmonic, Multi-Storey Orchestra, Chineke!, and Sinfonia Cymru, and more.

Daniel loves contemporary music, having undertaken intensive study with Sophie Cherrier at the Lucerne Festival Academy, and performing with groups like Riot Ensemble. He greatly enjoys education and outreach work, such as for Live Music Now, and has given masterclasses at Leicester and Canterbury Christchurch Universities.

Beibei Wang, Percussion (Stepmother)

Beibei Wang is an internationally acclaimed percussion virtuoso based in London. She has been heralded by the Wall Street Journal for her “high-energy virtuosity” and by The New York Times for her “flamboyant” performance style. She was listed in the top 50 Chinese musicians in the “Sound of East” project by the Chinese Ministry of Culture in 2014. In 2015, she was endorsed by Arts Council England, receiving an Exceptional Talent visa from the British Government. Since 2008, Beibei has been featured as a soloist in world-renowned composer Tan Dun’s Organic Music Trilogy, collaborating with orchestras worldwide, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra UK and the China Philharmonic. Recently, her music was broadcasted on BBC Radio 3 Late Junction. She currently leads a traditional Chinese percussion course at SOAS and University of Birmingham.

Reylon Yount, Yangqin (Step-Sibling 2)

As a biracial Chinese American growing up in San Francisco, Reylon Yount began learning yangqin (the Chinese hammered dulcimer) as a way to stay connected to his heritage. They have since introduced the rare instrument to the world stage, featured alongside Rhiannon Giddens and Yo-Yo Ma on Silkroad’s GRAMMY Award-winning record “Sing Me Home”.

While completing her undergraduate studies in Environmental Science and Public Policy at Harvard University, Reylon conducted research for environmental organisations in China, Australia, and the U.S. They then moved to the UK to complete two master’s degrees at SOAS University of London and Goldsmiths University of London.