｜Ze and Zir｜ Asia Culture Center《Solidarity as Spore》（Love: in all its forms and inclusivity)

May 2020



Ze and Zir, 2020. Three-channel
video, color, silent, 2 min.
Commissioned by Asia Cultur Centert 　

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If there were no genders, it should not cause any troubles to say “ze has loved cars since childhood”, “ze dreams to become a ballet dancer”, or “ze loves zir deeply and wants to spend zir life with zir”.
　
Gender binary is the source of all gender troubles. If people could choose to become partners, how to dress and how to present themselves in life without gender labels, then we no longer need to establish self-value by conforming to gender stereotypes. An individual could build a personal image freely without referring to gender roles and instead according to their unlimited imagination.
　
Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage in 2019. In the same year, the Oxford English Dictionary update included gender-neutral third-person pronouns Ze and Zir. With a similar spirit, we experiment with removing the radicals of Chinese characters “他(he)”/“她(she)”, reinventing the character “也” as the potential gender-neutral pronoun and using it as the core concept of this creative project.
　
The work consists of three moving posters, which will be displayed in loop on three aligned, vertical screens, each with a different theme. We incorporate elements of gender stereotypes in these images while seeking to break the traditional gender framework through a visual dynamic, as well as to discover more freedom in gender expression. There is no “should”; women don’t need to wear heels and men can enjoy putting on makeup. 　

Lastly, a colorful glass ball travels through the images on the screens, metaphorically crossing the boundaries of time and space.



｜Artist / Sydney Sie & Zen Yun Zon
｜Special Thanks: 親愛的 @aaronnieh / Elise Chen

Video ↓