_ao_ao_ing（老妖精）is a performance ensemble that is continuously morphing and finding its shape. Founded in 2018 and based in Shanghai, it has six core members from different disciplines and backgrounds. It is a non-hierarchical group that believes in art through collaboration. _ao_ao_ing makes performances that flirt with the line between theatre and everyday life; and create real-life happenings that cannot be replicated. They have been making works in and out of theatre – on public bus, in open streets, rural villages, sex shops, cafes, art museums, online and so on.
Their past works include:
- Annata: Not A Real Drag Show (2019 – , private apartment, the Pearl, Aranya Theater Festival)
- “Tourist Like Us” Audio Tour Series (2018 – 2020, Dinghaiqiao, Fuzhou Rd., Hangzhou)
- Murder of a Pomegranate (2019, Naxing Space)
- Hi! Hi! Hi! (2020, Power Station of Art)
- Dragon for the Village: A Future Festival (2020, Qingshan Village)
- exe (2020, online streaming at bilibili.com, part of Shenzhen OCAT exhibition: Re-writing Theatre History)
- Rest In Peace, Papa (2021, SDACLab, Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre)
- WeaverGirl Project (2019 – , HOME @ MICRO, Project Terrace, Residence of French Consul General in Shanghai)
The current _ao_ao_ing artists in residence at Duke Kunshan University are LIN Cuixi（林翠西, Eva LOU （一娃）and Dan T. FANG（方胆疼）.
In the two weeks of _ao_ao_ing’s residency at DKU, they want to delve into the dynamics of this campus and uncover the energy bustling underneath its silent architecture. They are looking for the shape of personal agency in the youth on this campus. Using artistic intervention as a creative tool, they hope to stir up the unspoken order organically. At the end of the residency, workshops, collaborations, and public performative events may or may not take place.
Artist-in-Residence at DKU is supported by Humanities Research Center, Division of Arts and Humanities, and DKUNST Art on Campus, convened and organized by DKU’s Associate Director of Arts, Professor Zairong Xiang.
