Studio Resident - Jing Jin

This year Tracks has provided support to local artists in the form of the 'Tracks Pack', which includes up to 40 hours to use in our studio as an in-kind donation from us. The Tracks Pack was offered to Darwin Fringe Festival and we have had the absolute pleasure of hosting Jing Jin in our studio to rehearse her fabulous Fringe show 'Cocoon'.

Jing Jin is a multimedia artist with roots in Hong Kong and California. Her work focuses on the uncanniness in everyday landscapes as well the interplay of intimacy and isolation. As one of the many Victoria lockdown escapees, she is contributing a piece to the Fringe that explores the experience of the extended lockdown in Victoria and many other parts of the world alike.

We had a chat with Jing Jin to find out more about her and her upcoming performance at Fringe.

You’ve been in Darwin for a little while (because of COVID) - How did this come about and what has your experience of Darwin been so far?

I initially came to Australia to travel and decided to hold onto a steady job in Melbourne when Covid hit. Over time the lockdowns were really starting to take a toll and I got offered a job up in Covid-free Darwin, so I jumped on the opportunity. Having stayed in Darwin for a couple of months during my travels, I knew I could count on the outdoors and pleasant climate (I'm a warm weather person!). What truly impressed me has been the sense of community of this place - in climbing, in the arts, everyone is open to newcomers and as long as you have a passion it is amazingly easy to get involved in things. 

You’re currently rehearsing in the Tracks studio for your Fringe Festival show Cocoon - tell us about the show and what you’re most looking forward to

A cocoon is, paradoxically, cozy and claustrophobic at the same time. Cocoon is an interactive performance that explores social and physical isolation and disorientation, a common yet often hushed-up part of everyday life until this past year - all enclosed in a literal bubble. How does it feel to perform a beautiful act, but covered, unseen? What does it mean to support another person's weight, but six feet apart? How to react to another person's gestures when so much gets lost in distance? After a collective improvisation warm-up that will help develop their movement vocabulary, audience members will be invited to come on stage and discover their own expression of the subject individually and in group settings. I hope to enact the complicated emotional journey of the lockdown through physical acts and call attention to the internal struggles during and beyond the strange year we've had. 

What do you love most about dance and movement practice?

I love the sense of freedom in my body and the ability to express myself with nothing more than my flesh and bones. I also love that it is inherently an "in the moment" thing, as much as we try to document, the sensation of movement and dance is a fleeting and beautiful thing that compels me to focus on the present. 

Find out more about all the dance showcased at Darwin Fringe Festival in 2021

Find out more about Tracks Studio Residencies