Frieze Focus | Stand H22
Venue: Regent’s Park, London, UK
Forming a four-piece boyband whose members comprise of masculine drag characters, Sin Wai Kin presents It’s Always You (2021), a new project composing of a dual-channel music video and various boyband ephemera that celebrate queer joy. Sin adopts the role of all four members in their boyband; each assuming an independent persona that strives to take on radically open positions, an embodiment of the multiplicity of identities that transcend man-made binaries.
Masculine drag marks a turning point for the artist who recently revealed a return to their gender-neutral Cantonese birth name, Sin Wai Kin 單慧乾 (formerly known as Victoria Sin). The artist describes this turn as one of “trying things on, rather than taking things off”. While Sin’s drag queen persona stripped bare the expectations of femininity and its relationship to womanhood, their drag king modality evolves space to experiment and play with fantasy in masculinity. The boyband is a carrier bag of sorts; the artist becomes gatherer and forager of characters, dances, fictions, truths, histories, and possible futures.
Visitors to the booth are promised the full fangirl/boy/by experience. Lifesize cut-out boards of the four characters greet viewers with ample photo opportunities (#itsalwaysyou2021 @sinforvictory). Perspex-framed posters signed by respective members are must-have collectibles for all loyal fans. And a dual channel installation including karaoke style lyrics for viewers to sing along to features The Boyband’s hit single, “It’s Always You”.
It’s Always You is jointly commissioned by Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong and Shedhalle, Zurich and is being exhibited in Shedhalle, Zurich as part of the group exhibition “Protozone 4: Extra Worlding” from September 17th to October 31st, 2021.
