“Yellow Hairy Balls” examines the relationship between race, fetish, and masculinity through a material transformation. Inspired by “Quare,” a term from African-American vernacular appropriated by Black queer scholar E. Patrick Johnson in order to fight against the term “Queer” dominated by the white gay male, I raise questions about where Asian queer people are located in the global queer community and how it can be manifested.

The piece starts with deconstructing dried clay remains from my previous performance, which was about criticizing an idealized male body image shaped by mass culture. By throwing, smashing, and hammering the remains, which resemble a muscular body, I intend to return to my otherwise skinny Asian body and queer desire, instead of including “everyone’s” ideal male body image. I accentuate my skin color by applying yellow-colored clay to my torso and experience my body as a field of desire by wearing chest hair harvested through free haircuts that I give to my friends. Finally, I peel my alternative skin off and roll it into yellow hairy balls in order to suggest how Asian queerness could be made physical and visible in American queer society, just like queer African-Americans have endeavored to visualize their own queerness as well as existence.