Yarli and Yin

We are London-based multidisciplinary artist and writer who weave our Sinosphereness with the thinking of queering imaginaries and diaspora identities in a European context.

 

Through untangling histories and myths via a fictitious moving-image approach, our interests lie in mixed modes of performances, electronic sound, creative writing & sculptural-installation sets.

 

As a duo, we have accomplished published works internationally in galleries and film festivals. Our debut queer porn short "Elephant the Allison" was well acknowledged and officially screened widely across Europe since 2018, in Berlin, Vienna, Warsaw and London.

 

In 2019, we were commissioned by Asia-Art-Activism (AAA) with Something Human to produce 1) East Asian queer audio work (aired via SOAS University Radio) and 2) short film "Wrestling Blues" during our residency at Raven Row Gallery. It was screened in HKLGFF & Paul Mellon Centre London.

 

In pandemic lockdown and political turbulent times, we successfully launched our collaboration "In Virtual Return We (Can’t) Dehaunt" in VIDEOTAGE (HK). Funded by Hong Kong Art Development Council (HKADC), it was also exhibited at FACT Liverpool curated by Annie Jael Kwan in 2022.

 

Yin is a writer whose works address queer sexualities, identity, desire, migration as well as diaspora in modern times. Published work: novella Yung Yung (Hong Kong, 2019).

 

Yarli is a mixed-media artist, graduated from Slade School of Fine Arts, University College London (2017). Selected exhibitions in 2021 including ICA (London), Catalyst Arts (Belfast), LINZ FMR biennial (Linz), and FACT (Liverpool).

 

 

Writer’s website: http://LoYu.work

 

Artist’s website: http://YarliAllison.com

 

 

 

Work

 

Elephant the Allison (2018)

 

The Very Educational Bubble Tea Audio Porn (2019)

 

Wrestling Blues (2019)

 

 

Elephant the Allison

 

Allison is an elephant who is obsessed with holes, and its sensual encounter with its online babe.

 

The film explores the nature of consciousness and spectatorship. By juxtaposing images and videos, the artist resonates the pattern of human memory - instead of serial linear actions, it is always parallel. Allison’s fetish - holes and Dung (means “hole” or “cave” in Chinese language) is visually perpetuated by the recurrence of images and music.

The practice of pornography consumption is also put under interrogation with the bricolage of the sensual moments, which leaves ripples that refuse to settle.

 

By juxtaposing the images and videos, the artist attempts to simulate the nature of human memory — a process that involves simultaneous actions instead of a linear narrative.

 

Director: So Yarli

Producer: Yin Lo

Camera: So Yarli

Cast: Huei and Pom

Length: 12:05 minutes

Format:

Ratio: 16:9

 

Screening History (Selected)

 

26 May 2018

Holoseksualni: bum bum porno disco techno

Queerowy Maj, Krakow, Poland

 

23 Oct 2018 to 28 Oct 2018

13th Pornfilmfestival Berlin

in “Experimental Porn Shorts” and “Lesbian Porn Shorts”

With Q&A after each screening

 

6 April 2019

Vienna Porn Film Festival

In “Political Porn shorts”

 

26 April 2019

London Porn Film Festival

In “Brazen Brits”

 

18 October 2019

Hamburg Queer Film Festival

Programme: Porn Film Festival Vienna Überraschungsprogramm

Venue: Metropolis Kino

 

24 October 2019

14th Pornfilmfestival Berlin

Venue: Moviemento, Berlin

 

29 November  2019

Athens Festival of Queer Performance

Venue: Fac Venue, Athens

 

13-15 March 2020

Vidéodrome2 Movie Theater

Marseille, France

 

14 March 2020

QUEER ART(ists) NOW, And What? Queer Arts Festival, London

 

21 August 2020

Brazen/Brits Shorts Program (UK), San Francisco PornFilmFestival, U.S.

 

12 March 2022

Eggs and Legs, KINO/Communitism, Athens

 

June 2022

Post Pxrn Film Festival Warsaw, Warsaw

 

Trailer:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Very Educational Bubble Tea

Audio Porn

 

 

A Very Educational Bubble Tea Audio Porn depicts a rendezvous of two persons of East Asian origins. Setting in a bubble tea shop in Chinatown London, the story begins with the two meeting on fetish gem platform Craigslist and deciding to meet in person.

 

Conversations follows a steamy sex scene between the two, which give insights on non-binary identity, sex outside of the mainstream, sex positivity, body positivity and Asian people in the UK.

 

This piece features East Asian people who refuse to be objectified nor fetishisised, and removes itself from the colonial gaze. It explores diasporic and transmigrant experiences in a modern context.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wrestling Blues

 

In this blue wrestling ring, no one seems to be living the presence. Their minds wander around to a deeper consciousness which explores the sexual and suicidal propensities of the human mind.

 

在這摔角場內,所有人都心不在焉,他們的思緒飄到了深層意識裏,展示了人的生之慾和死之慾。

 

UK/HK

2019

Length: 6:06 minutes

Language: Cantonese, with Chinese and English subtitles

 

Director: Yarli Allison

Producer: Yin Lo

 

Script: Yarli Allison, Yin Lo

Camera: Yarli A, Yin Lo

Set and design: Yarli A

Music: Yarli A, Mavi Haro

Editing: Yarli A

Sound post-production

Technical Advisor and Photography: ZDH

Boom Operator: Kris Abdai

 

Cast:

Mavi Haro

Sammi Tong

Buttercup Ninja

Yarli A

 

Voice performers:

Yarli A

Yin Lo

Winky Cheung

Tiff Hui

 

Venue supported by Asia-Art-Activism.

Raven Row Gallery, London.

 

Screening History

1-4 October 2020

PFF Vienna, Arthouse Vienna and Schikaneder, Vienna

 

9 October 2020

Online Screening, HOAX Publication , London, UK

 

21 November 2020

HKLGFF 香港同志影展, Hong Kong

 

June 2021

[Online Screening + Talk] QueerAsias: Virtual Cartographies of Desires, London, Asia, Art, Worlds

Paul Mellon Centre, London

 

June 2022

Queer Butoh 2022, Vangeline Theater, New York, USA

 

 

Trailer:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ALL IMAGES AND TEXT © YIN LO. Calligraphy by Man Chi Sun. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.