Rachelle Lee
Medusa Salon 美杜莎理发店
This film explores how to capture the post-traumatic experiences of individuals while resisting narrativising the traumatic event (in this case, sexual abuse), transforming a hair salon into a space of safety and vulnerability that could be conducive for one to sit with trauma. While this film takes place in a whimsical, imaginative space that exists between two individuals, we wish to examine how the audience's gaze allows us to critically explore the possibility of creating safe spaces that exist despite, and alongside social norms and realities.
seven three five
The artist is curious to investigate how micro traumas that individuals are exposed to might affect them in ways that might not be observable or often talked about in current narratives. We are currently living in the age of trauma (i.e., systemic and intergenerational trauma). Extending from that, the artist questions to what extent do traumatic responses manifest in our day to day living. This current film exploration is rooted in the different markers of time following micro traumatic experiences of a woman.
Teoh Jie Yu
Medusa Salon 美杜莎理发店
This film explores how to capture the post-traumatic experiences of individuals while resisting narrativising the traumatic event (in this case, sexual abuse), transforming a hair salon into a space of safety and vulnerability that could be conducive for one to sit with trauma. While this film takes place in a whimsical, imaginative space that exists between two individuals, we wish to examine how the audience's gaze allows us to critically explore the possibility of creating safe spaces that exist despite, and alongside social norms and realities.
seven three five
The artist is curious to investigate how micro traumas that individuals are exposed to might affect them in ways that might not be observable or often talked about in current narratives. We are currently living in the age of trauma (i.e., systemic and intergenerational trauma). Extending from that, the artist questions to what extent do traumatic responses manifest in our day to day living. This current film exploration is rooted in the different markers of time following micro traumatic experiences of a woman.
Medusa Salon 美杜莎理发店
seven three five
Dramaturg's Notes
Artists Lim Ci Xuan, Rachelle Lee and Teoh Jie Yu come together to begin everyday conversations about coping with trauma. Loosely inspired by Murakami’s Sleep, this collective offers glimpses into the psychological and physiological aspects of traumas. Since kinds of trauma, its effects, and how one deals with it are necessarily varied, each film offers a different and distinct perspective on life with trauma.
Independently helmed by Ci Xuan and Jie Yu with Rachelle overseeing the artistic direction, the artists highlight unique ways of addressing mental wellness.
Ci Xuan’s Medusa Salon dives into macro trauma (or “big T” that are resultant from extreme life-threatening situations like violent crimes). Distancing herself from narrativizing traumatic sexual abuse, she instead investigates how one copes after such experiences. An acute interest in hair serves as a marker of time and the indoor setting festers into an odd weaving through of trance-like obstructions. On the other hand, Jie Yu brings to the fore the nuanced and understated microtraumas (also called “small t” or non-life-threatening traumas like emotional abuse) that often go unnoticed and underexplored. Her seven three five microtraumas premises on an obsession with clocks, larger expanses, free expressions and pedestrian movements – potentially an ode to freedom.
Whimsical and quirky, each film offers a unique take on the passing of time – teasing the audience on what it means to have a memory coloured by a traumatic experience that is at best only alluded to in the films. This is further emphasized by Rachelle’s eye for visual poetry through the cinematography and fast cutting techniques. Examining traumatic experiences and how one tends to cope with it, the voiceovers mark an intimate mode of sharing. In each film, the actor behavior – including but not limited to the counting method, eating, and progressive jerking and shaking as a means of releasing trauma from the body – was also carefully plotted and grounded in research on how trauma tends to manifest itself on the corporeal.
About Artist(s)
Lim Ci Xuan, Teoh Jie Yu, Rachelle Lee
Lim Ci Xuan
Ci Xuan likes to move, act, write, make puppets and quirky videos while engaging in pertinent social conversations. She is a co-founder of an interdisciplinary arts collective Matter.Less and an associate artist of Split Theatre. She is a recent graduate of ARTivate, a 3-year program by Drama Box, while pursuing a double major in NUS Chinese Studies and Theatre Studies. Her selected acting credits include “Dream Under a Southern Bough” (2021) and ”Oedipus”(2019) by TOY Factory; “White Bone Fiend” (2022) and “No Strings Attached” (2021) by Paper Monkey; ‘Dancing with Fish in the Midnight Zone“ (2021) by Drama Box.
Teoh Jie Yu
Teoh Jie Yu is a psychology graduate who is passionate in integrating the aspect of mental wellness in her artistic explorations. She is a theatre and movement enthusiast, and is currently exploring experimental ways of creative art making. A graduate from ARTivate (youth wing of Drama Box), Jie Yu’s interests lie in conceptualising works that revolves around social issues, and uncovering the human psyche. She has performed and written for "Dancing with Fish in the Midnight Zone" by ARTivate, a series of Re:Verse shows with Matter.less and performed in "The Map" by Pat Toh. She has also conducted community dance workshops with the seniors, youths and children with special needs together with NUS Dance Synergy over the years.
Rachelle Lee
Rachelle is a recent graduate from Film, Sound & Video, Ngee Ann Polytechnic. She has co-founded interdisciplinary arts collective Matter.less which explores the fusion of literary texts with theatre and film, as well as YouTube channel Xiao Ming’s Right Brain which advocates the love for Chinese literature. Her dream is to run a laundromat studio where she can work on her pile of unfinished scripts. In her spare time, she remembers to change her fish’s water.
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