For the Record

BITE began as a personal act. Using clay from places I had lived, I pressed my teeth into each plate, each place, leaving my mark. More than an action, this was an act of defiance aimed at unearthing buried histories and reimagining the colonial narratives embedded in the clay itself. As an immigrant woman and artist, I stood at the intersection of past and present. My body became a bridge for historical connection and created a personal archive, a living record. 

BITE pushed forward from a solitary to a public sphere, transmuting into a communal act. In public performances, as I engaged with ceramic plates, the audience participated as witnesses in the act of mark-making. Their presence became integral to the archive. The marks were an imprint of shared moment and communal experience. Shifting from body to collective memory created new possibilities for preservation, transcending conventional and traditional collections to embrace the ephemeral nature of experience as a new approach in archiving. 

BITE’s third form follows the traditional form of archiving — the objects that remain are vessels of narrative, memory, and transformation. They affirm archiving as an ongoing process. Creation and communal acts are as significant as physical objects manifesting as a living archive, witness to history, repository of memory, and catalyst for future narratives. 

While performances may be impermanent, memories of the narrative’s emotional and social impact formed during performances endure, transforming the archive into a relevant entity embedded within human experience. This archival production of sensory experiences that challenge dominant narratives fosters new understandings of preserving history.