Maintain Status Quo Indefinitely
performance, dimensions variable, 2022–ongoing
A pigment print of the 228 Incident, divided and mounted on six 40 × 40 inch wood panels. During each live performance, the artist scrubs away one panel of the image with sandpaper. The work has been performed on the ground level in both open and enclosed spaces, with three performances in summer 2024 and two planned for summer 2025.
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live drawing by Felisa Nguyen
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first trial in 2023
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After/Images, two-person exhibition, Black Brick Project, New York, 2025
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2024 Parsons MFA Photography Thesis Exhibition, Country within Country and Maintain Status Quo Indefinitely
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Maintain Status Quo Indefinitely, performance with sandpaper and physical labor on pigment prints on wood panel
40 × 40 × 3/4 inches, 21 minutes, 2024
40 × 40 × 3/4 inches, 21 minutes, 2024
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excerpt of Maintain Status Quo Indefinitely, performance with sandpaper and physical labor on pigment prints
10 × 13 feet, 2023
10 × 13 feet, 2023
AL: Maintain Status Quo Indefinitely definitely works “around” photography, centering around one black-and-white image of the 228 Incident that you obscure and eventually erase throughout your performance. How did you decide to engage with this particular history through performance?
WW: In 2022, I came across an interview with Cheng Chu-Mei, the daughter of Cheng Nan-jung, an activist and publisher who self-immolated and remains a contested figure in Taiwanese history. Especially compelling was Chu-Mei’s account of the tension between seeing Cheng as a loving father and a historical figure who prioritized collective justice over himself.
My research on Cheng naturally led me to the 228 Incident and its lasting impact on Taiwanese society. Cheng Nan-jung once wrote, “I was born in the year of the 228 Incident, and that event has troubled me all my life because I am mixed-blooded.” It’s a statement that encapsulates layers of identity, history, and trauma, reflecting the complexities of what it means to identify as Taiwanese.
In the winter of 2022, I began burning a small-scale image of the 228 Incident each day, exploring the idea of rituals — how people mourn, grieve, and commemorate, and how historical events are monumentalized and can become abstracted over time. Later, this daily ritual evolved into the performance Maintain Status Quo Indefinitely.
The image I use has remained consistent — it was actually the first result that appeared when I searched for the 228 Incident on Google. Its ubiquity intrigued me, and I was struck by its symbolism. The image depicts people burning tobacco and goods — commodities monopolized by the government — as an act of protest on February 28, 1947. What followed was violent government suppression, escalating into a massacre with continuously varied death toll figures. The event marked the beginning of almost four decades of martial law in Taiwan, during which the 228 Incident became taboo.
Engaging with this history, my performance examines how individuals and society navigate collective trauma and subsequent resistance.
我們都是灰燼的子民
一個噴嚏就能捻熄歷史的鬼火
photos by Kuan Hsieh (1–5, 7–9, 11)
and farfar studio (10)
drawing by Felisa Nguyen (6)
videos by Francis Chiang (12)
and Kuan Hsieh (13)