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Picnic Parade is a performance and sculptural installation using wearable art made of cloth, vinyl picnic table coverings, fruit, water, and other mixed media. The performance took place in Jamaica, Queens on May 27, 2017. Wearing these costumes and accompanied by drumbeats, performers lead the public on a procession for several city blocks. The group arrive at a local park where members of the audience and passersby joined the lead character in a picnic. The picnic took on the form of a ritual. It involved serving cut fruit and water to the participants. The artist’s quilted gown became a large picnic blanket made of colorful vinyl tablecloths.
The work centers on the Lyn-Kee-Chow’s Afro-Chinese-Jamaican body performing the character of a queen in procession. The artist’s persona also references Oya, the African Yoruban “Orisha” or spirit. According to the artist, in Jamaica, Oya is commonly associated with the marketplace. The performance elevates and empowers the figure of the Jamaican marketplace woman to that of the queen goddess figure. In the performance, an entirely white male entourage serves a black queen/goddess figure. This overturns colonial, ethnic, racial, geographic, socioeconomic, gender, and sexist differences.
Similarly, the artist taps into her Chinese cultural heritage through embracing and calling attention to the act of offering fruit and water. For the Chinese, the offering of fruit can be a sacred gesture, or it can be a simple domestic act. Take a moment to imagine the picnic. Think back to a time when you made an offering. Who did you offer it to? Perhaps it was offered to a friend, a family member or even perhaps to a deity. Where were you, what were you thinking about, and how does it make you feel to remember that offering?