I MUST ALWAYS FUNCTION!!!

The response, collaborations, joy, connections, learning, quality and purpose we have found with sharing space with extraordinary disabled, sick and/or neurodiverse artists (or allies to our community) has enabled Squeeze Box to transcend. We have worked with a growing number of amazing visual artists, adding depth and new ways of working which is symbiotic to our live process – from painters to collage makers and sculptors. More recently, we have had the joy of finding ways to co-make with a live artist called Yudi Wu, with their work: I MUST ALWAYS FUNCTION!!!

I'm always productive. I'm always sociable. I must always function.

I'm never productive. I'm never sociable. I will never function.

I wanted to take the time in this blog to fully appreciate this layered and confronting, yet accessible piece of live durational.

Below is my review of Yudi Wu’s latest durational live work

 I MUST ALWAYS FUNCTION!!! asks urgent and fundamental questions of why we demand evermore from people just to ‘cope’ in a society which rejects them and spits out anyone who shows signs of ‘weakness’. It is a timely reminder that social media and avatar-like virtual worlds are, slowly but surely, dismantling our very sense of us, of being human and being able to say, “this is too much”.

In a brightly lit, welcoming theatre foyer, something uneasy going on. People racing around to make their next rehearsal, or coffee meeting, do not seem to fully take this in. A tired body in pyjama trousers and a scruffy top, sits defeated. Round them, junk, half-drunk coffee cups, medication and popped pill packets, broken equipment, and dirty laundry. Yudi themselves melts into this scene of chaos and ‘un-care’. They face a screen, sometimes scratch their head or yawn, but more often than not, staring the hundred-mile stare, fatigue etched over the face and hands shaking, just a little.

But this doesn’t matter, because we have a distraction. Projected onto a far wall is a happy, carefree (deeply unhealthy) character occupying an all-but utopian virtual world. One with rainbows and smiley faces on everything, pink fluffy clouds and glitter. In this world, the avatar is playing and laughing … and socialising. It is able to ‘function’ – it is able to be part of the gang. Every new person who walks in is greeted by the avatar. It can’t get enough of people, it asks to be friends, very directly and without a hint of awkwardness.

So, this piece has another context layer – not just exposing the juxtaposition between knotty, raw and exhausting reality, and the slightly sickening rainbow world of virtual socialising. Some who walk past the projection might show their boldness by asking the avatar a question, but be totally oblivious to the fact that the character is being controlled, in real time by Yudi. Yudi is somehow, just about ‘functioning’. They are bridging the reality of hopelessness, fatigue due to capitalist systems, little support for anyone who is neurodiverse, and the sheer weight of ‘othering’, by ‘making-it’ through their online creation. All the reactions, comments, waves, emoji-inspired heart signs, smiles and winks and “let’s be friends – I’m very good at socialising”, is being controlled by Yudi, there and then

Forcing yourself away from gazing at the projection, you witness Yudi being frantic, amongst the exhaustion – a putting-out-fires approach that so many of us can relate to. They type quickly, and then regret, as that impulse act of needing to react, is so, so tiring.

Not only does this work shine a light on the reality far too many people with ADHD face, but Yudi challenges the very notion of live art. How do you ‘function’ in a post-brexit disaster capitalist world, where, for many, the one tool that can be used to ‘cope’ (the right medication), is increasingly scarce? This incredibly moving piece leaves the overall reflection of just how much demand is placed on the artistic body. In our increasingly polarised economy, it is more and more difficult to just ‘do art’. Yudi is not only performing a demanding durational, but they also have to operate a virtual performance too – they are both live artists and social media manager, virtual world designer/operator, networker, technician, administrator, trouble-shooter, marketer and ‘never-switch-off-er’.

The ironic twist of this performance is that with all this demand, plus the everyday battle of just surviving, which diverse communities have to navigate, this work may not be seen again, but if Yudi is able to perform this durational, it is a must  be experienced by  all…

Yudi describes themself as both a 'hyper-local Community Arts Practitioner', and an 'extremely online Creative Technologist'. Their work often explores queerness, immigrant identity, neurodiversity, and the idea of being an ‘artist’, with radical accessibility and interactivity being the heart of their practice. Outside of their explorations into live art, they often work with immigrants, young people and queer people on community arts projects; or, create visuals and interactive experiences using projection, Unreal Engine, AR and web.

 You can find them on Instagram: @yuekonpotato & check out their website: yudyw22.myportfolio.com