Performance

VOID

Joshua Serafin
Calvin Carrier
Alex Zhang Hungtai

July 20, 2024, 7:30pm
316 Ten Eyck

The center and titular character of Joshua Serafin’s performance work VOID is a speculative deity and an oneiric alter-ego; a fluid, undefinable, primordial being who represents an ancient, ancestral body and who Joshua dances into life in a soundscape of recorded and live music performed by Alex Zhang Hungtai and Calvin Carrier.

At once an invocation, a reincarnation, and an exorcism, VOID draws on the creation myths and precolonial history of the Philippine archipelago to imagine a speculative future where the imposed ideology of colonial patriarchy gives way to more ancient, more fluid, and more liberated modes of being. Performed outdoors at dusk within a fluid scenography of smoke, light, and ectoplasmic soil, VOID proposes that the liberation of all bodies does not merely belong to a hypothetical future but is deeply rooted in precolonial modes of thought and categories of identification.

VOID accompanies Joshua’s three-channel video installation Creation Paradigm (2023), on view in Amant’s 932 Grand Street gallery from June 27 through August 18, 2024.

Image: Joshua Serafin, VOID, performance view. Photo from TONO Festival 2024 by García Jauregui.

Joshua Serafin (they/she) is a multi-disciplinary artist who combines dance, performance, visual arts, and choreography. Born in the Philippines in 1995, they are currently based in Brussels. They are a house artist of Viernulvier for the season 2023-2027. They studied contemporary dance at Hong Kong Academy and later on graduated from P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels. Joshua received a Bachelor’s in Performance in 2021 and a Master’s in Fine Arts in 2022 from KASK, where they were the recipient of the Horlait-Dapsens Prize. They premiered their first solo work “Miss” in VIERNULVIER and have since collaborated with multiple artists in Asia and Europe. Their work has been shown internationally, most notably in Esplanade in Singapore, BIT Teatergarasjen, Norway; Anti Festival, Finland; Nightshift, Ostende; Beursschowburg, Brussels; Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; TONO Festival, Mexico City; and Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin. They were an official participant in the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia curated by Adriano Pedrosa.
Calvin Ferdinando Carrier is a British/Italian singer-songwriter and dancer working between performance and music, born in London, UK and currently based in Brussels, Belgium. Calvin trained as a dancer at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels obtaining both a BA and MA qualification.  As a songwriter he goes by Calvin Ferdinando. His songs are a weird fusion of Neapolitan blues/pop and English indie/singer-songwriter. He writes mostly on acoustic guitar and his soft tenor voice is an amusing blend of delicate and direct. As a composer he has scored music for Ballet Philippines and is working closely with performance artist Joshua Serafin in their touring performance VOID.   Calvin and Nemo is a music project he created with artist Nemo Flouret. In 2023 they released their debut album At Your Sweet Pleasure. Calvin’s personal highlights include his single ‘I’ve Been Here Before’ featuring on the BBC Introducing Mixtape by Tom Robinson and being invited to open the concert for Tom Rosenthal at Cirque Royal in Brussels.
Alex Zhang Hungtai is a multidisciplinary artist focused in improvisation and its correlation with the unconscious. His instrumentation ranges from saxophone and drums to electronics. Some past collaborators include: Tashi Dorji, Che Chen, Leo Chang, Chris Williams, Sam Shalabi, David Maranha, and Gabriel Ferrandini. He has appeared in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return alongside Dean Hurley and Riley Lynch under the fictitious band TROUBLE. His latest film score GODLAND by Hlynur Pálmason was in competition at Cannes film festival’s Un Certain Regard.
He currently lives in New York City.
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