Lying in Limbo—A Review of On the White Ground - Cleansing
Performance by Dongting Huang
What is created is never fully destroyed. In having existed, what is created can impact and linger in memories, in the environment which housed it, in the next creation which takes its destruction as blueprint or inspiration. On the White Ground - Cleansing, by Dongting Huang, is an experimental performance interrogating the value of creation, alongside the tense relationship between intention, action, and result. In this performance, every intended action is derailed by another; footprints that mark the ground are washed away soon after, merging with another footprint, until the canvas transforms into something unrecognisable.
Our performers begin with a blank canvas beneath their feet, before dipping their shoes into ink and striding across the blankness below without clear intention or purpose. Guests at the exhibition are invited to join in, track their muddied shoes into the ink and step where their body takes them. Once the canvas is sufficiently dirtied, the performers bring out the cleaning supplies, and attempt to undo what has been done.
Despite clear footprints being removed by mop and rag, traces of its existence remain in the form of a discoloured canvas. Footprints, left by performers and exhibit attendees, lose their shape and place, becoming one with each other, but never removed from the space. Their impact has been made, and the only way to ‘remove’ them is to make it into something else – a new state that draws no connection to its original form. Though unrecognisable and misplaced, the presence of these once deliberately placed footprints cannot be denied. Yes, they remain on the canvas, but more importantly, they have infected the mops, rags and clothing of those who have tried to remove them. What has been created is not destroyed, only migrated and transformed.
Huang’s performance also highlights the true chaotic nature of these seemingly dichotomous actions of creating and destroying. In the act of creation, there is a destruction of the blank canvas. In the act of cleansing, there is the destruction of the canvas’s transformed state, only to create something new again. Intention, action, and result are misaligned, and we end up in a brand new place—a compromise is too kind a word, and collaboration seems inaccurate. Discomfort describes this unidentifiable new normal perfectly, and that is how this space will stay until a new element is introduced for the cycle to begin again.
As the artist puts it herself, "Cleansing wasn't meant to deliver a fixed message, but to set up a situation where actions unfold over time, and how gestures, repetition, and material interaction can shift perception and meaning." The simplicity in Dongting Huang’s piece lends itself to many conversations, but holds an irrefutable truth: the only way forward is for the cycle to repeat. Ultimately, this performance art, which only ended due to an allocated runtime, creates (or disrupts) in the mind of the viewer: What is the line that separates creation from destruction?
Lying in Limbo—A Review of On the White Ground - Cleansing
Yvette Chan is a writer and narrative designer from Hong Kong. She enjoys exploring the intersection of media, identity, and language while toying with form and medium. She has been recognised by The Wells Festival of Literature in 2021, The Brick Lane Short Story Prize in 2023, and contributed her conceptual poem to WHERE ELSE: An International Hong Kong Poetry Anthology. Find her in London cafes designing game narratives with a kiss of poetry, crafting stories from overheard conversations, and working on her first novel.
On the White Ground - Cleansing by Dongting Huang
Media:
Live performance with audience interaction/ Video documentation/Photograph
Live performance (experimental showing): approx. 120 mins
Year: 2025
Introduction：
On the White Ground - Cleansing takes the white ground as its vessel, traces as its language, and the body as its instrument of expression. It is an ongoing performance experiment that unfolds around the making and erasing of marks.: as the artist and audience step into the space, cleaning and staining emerge within the same gesture, while repair and disruption intertwine in an endless cycle.
Concept, Direction & Lead Performance: Dongting Huang
Co-Performer & Composer: Juice Cui
Onsite Producer: Anyuan Wang
Videography (Documentation): Wantong Ren
Location: Contact Theatre, Manchester Festival: 25th Emergency Festival