This performance is a reenactment of a children's game from the Philippines called ‘Chinese Garter’, which involves jumping over a long elastic rope (like rubber bands that are chained together) by snagging the rope with your foot to get to the other side while two players hold the rope and gradually increase the heights over time.  Due to an extreme need for flexibility, players of these games would oftentimes be girls; therefore, as a child who was incredibly adept at playing this game, I always felt ashamed of my abilities and I frequently stopped myself from playing to avoid being teased as gay or effeminate. Now, performing this game as an adult, I am reclaiming my experience and reaffirming my queerness as a form of closure from all the shame and fear I have encountered growing up. 

The work ultimately functions as a symbol of the elasticity and resilience of the queer body and its ability to overcome struggles despite inhibitions that may hamper or impede its mobility. In this work, I sought to illustrate this central concept through a variety of formal and material choices that reinforce different capabilities of the constrained queer self. The first can be observed in the specific stylistic form of the rendered bodies in the space. The larger figures on the opposite ends of the threshold rope are representative of bodies that are quite literally suppressed within the boundaries of a rigid rectangular space. Their representational form, in addition to their deliberate flatness, speaks to the malleability of the queer body and its ability to fit into tight spaces such as the closet for many years, wearing identities that are ill-fitting and adapting to a state of inhibition in order to survive. The same can be said for the smaller figures hanging from the ceiling, which represent contorted bodies that seek mobility in a restrictive space. Materially, rubber bands dominate a significant part of the space, reinforcing not only the elastic and flexible nature of the queer body but also its ability to withstand tremendous external pressure. The threshold rope hung above the larger bodies and the myriad of ropes hung near the floor are stretched to a great extent, withstanding a tremendous amount of stress, tension, and pressure. While the work demonstrates endurance in the face of exigency, it also recognizes the exhaustion that comes after, as conveyed by the act of laying down on the mat at the end of the performance.