If Our Hands Could Hold the Weight of Promise – Skidmore College

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY (April 3, 2024) — The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College announces a special April 17 performance in conjunction with the exhibition Elevator Music 48: Alone, only in flesh called if our hands could hold the weight of promise.

On Wednesday, April 17, at 5 pm, if our hands could hold the weight of promise features Elevator Music 48: Alone, only in flesh exhibiting artists MIZU, Theresa-Xuan Bui, and Antonius-Tín Bui, and dancer Glenna Yu. They will activate the Tang elevator and atrium staircase with cello, improvisational movement, spoken word poetry, and audience interaction with traditional Vietnamese garments (áo dài). In this way, the audience will join the diasporic artists on a migration embodying the hesitations, expectations, and contemplations of returning home.

Elevator Music 48: Alone, only in flesh is a site-specific, collaborative meditation on three diasporic artists’ experiences in and between lands and waters, and how those experiences shape untranslatable connections to home and identity. Antonius-Tín Bui, Theresa-Xuan Bui, and MIZU meld the language of altars—spaces of presence, transcendence, and transmission—with the liminality of the shifting elevator and welcome all to commune with the unknown. Through a combination of spoken word poetry, experimental cello, traditional Vietnamese áo dài (garments), Southeast Asian home goods, and Asian snacks, the installation engages all five senses—aural, visual, haptic, olfactory, and gustatory.

This exhibition, which is on view through May 5, is organized by Curatorial Assistant Ivy K. Vương in collaboration with the artists.

Also of note, at 4:30 pm on Wednesday, April 17, students in Skidmore College Visiting Artist-in-Residence Chia-Ying Kao’s Dance 317: K-Pop II course will perform as part of their semester’s final work.

For more information, contact the Visitors Services Desk at 518-580-8080 or visit https://tang.skidmore.edu.

About the Artists

Antonius-Tín Bui (they/them) is a polydisciplinary artist and shapeshifter invested in the transformative potential of improvisation, portraiture, craft, and ritual. They are the child of Paul and Van Bui, two Vietnamese refugees who sacrificed everything to provide a future for their four children and extended family. Born and raised in the Bronx, Bui eventually moved to Houston before pursuing a BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Bui has received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, Kala Art Institute, Tulsa Artists Fellowship, Halcyon Arts Lab, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Yaddo, Anderson Center at Tower View, The Growlery, Jentel, and Fine Arts Work Center.

Theresa-Xuan Bui (they/them) is a queer, non-binary Vietnamese American artist questioning the intersections of the personal and political as a means for critically imagining the future. Through drawing and dancing, they translate their embodied practice into a performance of language and sound. The work does not seek to answer or proclaim, but rather openly and recklessly process the self within larger power structures. They are descended from Vietnamese refugees and are inspired to continue the legacies of vanguard Asian Americans. Born and raised in the Bronx, they moved to Houston before pursuing a BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

MIZU (she/her) is a Juilliard-trained experimental cellist exploring themes of transformation and the infinite possibilities within queerness, as well as the boundaries between concert, theater, and performance art. She builds expansive soundscapes by melding cello with electronic manipulation and experimental production, included in her recently released album Forest Scenes and her debut album Distant Intervals (spring 2023). MIZU also collaborates across media with movement artists such as Lili (Luyan Li), Kennie Zhou, and Antonius-Tín Bui; directors like George Miller and Dan Silver; and designers including MEGHUN. She has performed extensively with guitarist and electronic producer Rachika Nayar, opened for Tim Hecker at Pioneer Works, collaborated with techno producer and flutist Concrete Husband, and was featured on the recent album Spike Field by singer-songwriter Maria BC. Her performances have taken her to Tokyo, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Washington DC, and soon to The Hague, Netherlands, for Rewire 2024.

Glenna Yu (she/her) is a movement artist based in Andes, New York, is a co-founder of artist residency/community Pillow Fort Arts Center and a member of the New York State Dance Force. Glenna has worked with BIRDHOUSE under the direction of Raven White, clyde fusei forth/Lokasparśa Dance Projects, Nicole Kadar, Yehuda Hyman/Mystical Feet Company, Isaac Iskra, Rebecca Lazier, and Stefano Nappi. Through her work with Pillow Fort Arts Center and the NYS Dance Force, Glenna is committed to supporting artists and dancers and making dance more accessible in upstate New York.

About the Tang Teaching Museum

The Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College is a pioneer of interdisciplinary exploration and learning. A cultural anchor of New York’s Capital Region, the Tang’s approach has become a model for college and university art museums across the country—with exhibition programs that bring together visual and performing arts with interdisciplinary ideas from history, economics, biology, dance, and physics, to name just a few. The Tang has one of the most rigorous faculty-engagement initiatives in the nation, and a robust publication and touring exhibition program that extends the museum’s reach far beyond its walls. The Tang Teaching Museum’s award-winning building, designed by architect Antoine Predock, serves as a visual metaphor for the convergence of art and ideas. The Museum is open to the public Tuesday–Sunday, noon–5 pm, with extended hours until 9 pm Thursday. https://tang.skidmore.edu