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:
