yon natalie mik

Handouts (Studies on Squats II), 2021
Yon Natalie Mik
Commissioned by Torrance Art Museum
Performed by Yon Natalie Mik with the public visitors as part of the NOMAD art show presented by the Torrance Art Museum, California
Photos by Daniel Kim

The series Studies on Squats explores the social choreographies and kinetic tales of the Asian Squat, revealing layers of migration, race, diplomacy, sexuality and colonial historicities.

The second performative study Handouts explored the kinetic vulnerability and contained vigor of the Asian Squat. The Asian Squat, a posture folded into everyday life, carries within it a narrative of balance between the precipice of action and the repose of reflection. This work delves into the dichotomy of the squat's form, an embodiment of potential energy akin to a frog coiled in latent power, juxtaposed against the outward simplicity and humility of making oneself small.

Engaging with the squat as a choreographic motif, we explore the inherent tension it represents—a tension between the gravitational pull towards the earth, signifying surrender to the forces greater than oneself, and the readiness to spring forth, signaling the innate resilience and agency that compels the body to rise. The squat is thus a living sculpture, a silent ode to the complexities of cultural resilience, strength in softness, and the vulnerability of rest.

Handouts invited the audience to squat with me. Together we contemplated our own stories related to this posture, unspoken stories that our bodies carry, the invisible weight of histories, and the silent language of endurance - all while somatically experiencing the Asian squat to think with the body in that here and now.