Born in 1980, The Mollusc Dimension (he/him) is a prolific, yet well-hidden, QTPOC, Chinese-British multi-genre, artist who creates improvisation, music, live and recorded performance, video, writing, digital and print zines.
Recent collaborators include Bird la Bird, The Bitten Peach UK, Chinese Arts Now, Comediasians, Devil’s Dyke Network, Fringe Fest, Jason Barker/Krishna Istha and Trans Pride Brighton. His work has appeared in the UK, Europe, China, the US and on the internet. Over the past 12 years, The Mollusc Dimension made over 12 zines, 8 music videos for other artists and contributed to many shows and screenings. He co-created Quiet Queers Qlub (the UK’s first QTPOC and non-binary-centring comedy sketch show) and Qraft Bistro (a queer artist collective). For more information: www.TheMolluscDimension.com
The Mollusc Dimension
HOMEGROWN ZINE – Tree-Based Art and Performance Writing
A4. Digital. 24pp
Pencil and pen drawings of three local trees encountered on local walks: “Oak”, “Chestnut” and “Apple” trees led to a series of colourful 2-D artworks, seven and a half experimental poems and a prose piece.
THE QUEST – Spoken word and Piano music video 2 min 42 secs.
To help him process the complex feelings that arose on discovering that his student’s favourite artist was linked with misogyny and homophobia, The Mollusc Dimension turned to poetry. Around this time, he encountered the great line, “All your faves are problematic” via writer Jacq Applebee, while poet Carlos Mauricio Rojas issued a challenge to identify “false idols”.
“The Quest” is combined with a piano improvisation in the style of heroic/ fantasy movie style, warped as though captured during a time travel trip. The artist appears to be immersed in a (simulated) projection of his artwork titled, “Chestnut”. He dives into pages of the zine and fills the visual frequencies with sounds. This is the first time he has used spoken-word and also set it to music for an commissioned piece.
THREE CUPS OF TEA – Audio Poetry Performance of 4 Cup and Spoon-Shaped Poems. 4 mins.
Since around 1999, The Mollusc Dimension has referred to feminised spaces in his art – battling with the toxicity of notions such as “home”, “family” and consumption. In 2020, he finds the voice to perform poems concerning desirable/discardable objects, infused with the feel of a domestic space via kitchen sounds captured from his home, his mum’s dog and lyrical piano improv. In making this work, and beyond it, he imagines joining a growing minority of East-Asian people of ALL genders and ages who talk about their experiences and feelings. As with “The Quest”, this audio piece adds an extra dimension to the zine component, which is in keeping with his love for multimedia, multi-sensory forms.
A child of immigrants, The Mollusc Dimension hopes that his efforts will encourage others, including the children of immigrants to explore creativity for their mental health and emotional processing.
Before the UK Covid-19 lockdown, The Mollusc Dimension had already moved back home seven years ago to live with his mum, following a traumatic bereavement. For many years, as a QTPOC living in Essex, he struggled to even effectively name intersectional rage and convey it. Thanks to Black queer trans feminist art and writings, he learnt the language to ask more interesting questions, the final one in the zine being, “Who is my favourite character from “Pose”?”