Walking Together
Single-Channel HD Video (2023)
6 mins 16 secs
Walking Together documents a performative act in which SLQS walks on horseback through the permissive bridleways of Walthamstow Marshes in London. Inspired by the walking meditations of Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist Thích Nhất Hạnh, the film explores relationships with the more-than-human world and raises questions of access, land rights, and belonging. Through the embodied gesture of wearing an áo dài, a traditional Vietnamese dress, the artist inhabits her diasporic Vietnamese roots. This not only challenges traditional perceptions of equestrians in the UK, but also points towards the reclaiming of space and identity in rural contexts.
This film was made in collaboration with video and sound artist Bilal Singh and equine partner Spirit of Saigon.
Exhibitions:
SLQS: Roan/m, MOMA Machynleth, 22nd April - 10th June 2023
Near Dwellers and the Sharing of Breath, Street Road Artists Space, Pennsylvania, USA - 4th Aug - 30th Sept 2023
SLQS Gallery Screening Room, July 2024
“SLQS poignantly reminds us of our place on Earth with its teeming multitude of life forms, and the plain reality of our shared journey: that we share the air as it invisibly loops in and out of all bodies, repeating with every heartbeat.”
— Street Road Artists Space
Breathing in: We are walking together this Earth
Breathing out: This Earth that holds us
In: Walking together
Out: The Earth that holds us
