<Genetic Salon - Waiting Room> Bobby Yu Shuk Pui

In the age of queer of embracing the fludity of body, gender, and identity, as well as the era of big data when everything can be quantified, I proposed a sci-fi imagination: Genetic Salon. Maybe one day you can trim yourself completely in the way you prefer, you could become a more unique and more perfect being. This project will be presented in the form of exhibition, short film, and a virtual company to construct a non-existential land—a provocation, a place far upon the sky, a promise too seducing, and a pressing warning. Post-human Narratives presents Genetic Salon - Waiting Room, a short video piece as part of the online exhibition. The video encompasses five stories of the receptionists in various waiting rooms, leading the audience into a seducing imagination of the future. In the bright and empty white room, the audience experiences how time becomes softer, slower by awaiting along with the receptionists. However, no matter how long the waiting time is going to be, the future is still confusing and difficult to predict.

Genetic Salon is an ongoing five years project (2018-2022). The project is a collaboration with people from different professions, including scientists, housewives, actors, scholars, collectors, anime lovers, and flashers. Issues concerning genetic technology have been discussed in the relation to theology, history, anime, and the human body. This first took form as a podcast in Hong Kong in 2018. In 2019, I travelled to Greece to explore the relations between human genes and ancient mythology such as Hermes’ scepter, Caduceus, and Chimera. Genetic Salon - Waiting Room is honored to be able to invite the curator and participating artists of the “Post-human Narratives” program to play the role of receptionists in this film. The exhibition project will continue to take place in Oslo and Prague after Hong Kong’s online exhibition.