CAST-OFF
Alice Z Jones × Dis Fig

Dropping as part of the 10th Berlin Network of Independent Project Spaces and Initiatives award ceremony and Berlin Art Week—opening September 15 —the interdisciplinary platform will present one of a four-part video series. Alice Z Jones x Dis Fig’s "CAST-OFF" (2021) premieres and screens at Mitte KUNSTPUNKT BERLIN until September 26. The audiovisual work will be accessible via Creamcake’s 3hdTV channel at the same time, which will act as an online stage, of sorts, becoming a celebratory space for support, community and pop appreciation, in all its diverse and exciting forms. “Pop Psychology” traces the unresolvable tensions between political activism and noise, empowerment and performativity, consumer culture and self-care, making these points of friction visible as therapeutic drives of sustainability and empowerment. Joy is an integral part to maintaining mental health, and now is the time to find it through music.

"CAST-OFF" is a collaborative audiovisual project exploring bodies in crisis, theories of dissent, and potential healing practices through art and music making. Taking Japanese choreographer Tatsumi Hijikata’s notion of a “casting-off” of society-approved notions of identity as a starting point, artist Alice Z Jones and producer Dis Fig (aka Felicia Chen) draw inspiration from butoh, shamanistic rituals, cyberpunk and the techno-poetics of Afrofuturism. They imagine possibilities for fracture—if only temporary—from a past, present and foreseeable future of the affliction of existing under oppressive systems. From social injustice, sickness, and technologically-enhanced violence to the physical and mental weight, an ever-increasing pressure put on those who exist on the margins, “CAST-OFF” converses with its audience through a combination of found footage, improvisational performance, and hypnotic and transitory sound. It moves through a myriad of histories, into the present day, while centering liminal and peripheral states of existence. Are we done yet?

Mixed and mastered by Theo Karon