Wednesday July 24 – Saturday July 27, 1-6pm*
Scrapbook: Tenzin Phuntsog
Durational performance
From “MY SKINS” (2019) a performance by Tenzin Phuntsog – (Photo: Joy Dietrich)
Microscope is very pleased to present as part of the exhibition “Scrapbook (or, Why Can’t We Live Together)” a durational performance by artist Tenzin Phuntsog.
In his new performance MY SKINS, Phuntsog addresses identity and displacement through his Tibetan heritage and his skin’s ability to rapidly shift color when exposed to sunlight. For the five-day performance the artist will appear during gallery hours lying in the sun at various locations around the building depending on the time of day.
Phuntsog will take self-portraits each day throughout his performance to capture his changing appearance, which will be hung daily in the gallery during the course of the exhibition.
*Please note: we are extending gallery hours the week of Phuntsog’s performance to include Wednesday July 24, 1-6pm.
Tenzin Phuntsog
“MY SKINS”, 2019
Durational performance
MY SKINS documents the process of my skin changing during prolonged sun exposure. Tibetans have evolved to thrive at higher elevations living closer to the sun and intense UVB rays, resulting in a rare genetic anomaly called the “high-altitude” gene. My skin soaks in the sun it does not burn very easily. This image of “sun-beaten” skin connects me to my uncle in Tibet who I never had an opportunity to meet due to political restrictions of entering Tibet. This piece documents the color of my skin changing, all the tones, all of which I have inhabited, are me, my skins. — TP
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Tenzin Phuntsog is a filmmaker, artist and educator. He earned an MFA from Columbia University’s Visual Arts Program and was an Agnes Martin Fellow, with a BA in Media Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles. Since having being denied access to enter Tibet where his relatives still reside, he has made work confronting his peculiar existence of statelessness in exile. His works have screened at international film festivals and museums including the Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York; Anthology Film Archives, New York; The Rubin Museum, New York; Microscope Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Video Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil; Jean Rouch International Film Festival, Paris, France; Loop Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; and the Buddhist Film Festival, Amsterdam, Nederlands. His first feature documentary film “Rituals of Resistance”, a collective portrait of Tibetan refugees and their stories of resistance in exile, premiered at the 2018 Margaret Mead Film Festival in competition. It will be also included in the upcoming exhibition “Clapping with Stones: Art and Acts of Resistance” at the Rubin Museum of Art, in New York. Over the past ten years, Phuntsog as the founder of the Tibet Film Archive has also being the force behind the preservation of rare archival films of Tibet’s bygone era and early exile years. These faithfully restored films have screened worldwide including at Cineteca di Bologna, Italy; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH; Metrograph, New York; MoMA, New York; National Gallery Singapore, and the Swedish Film Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. He attended Cineteca di Bologna’s “Film Restoration Program” through a Film Foundation Fellowship. He was a 2019 Flaherty Seminar Fellow and is currently working on several projects including his first feature fiction film and a photographic series confronting his cultural resistance and colonial oppression. Phuntsog is currently an Assistant Professor of Film and Lens Based Media at Montana State University.