Orientation was originally conceived by Hai-Wen Lin in 2021, when it was performed by the artist with their collaborator Charlie Thornton. For this commission, Lin and Thornton have reimagined the performance piece as a video projection for CAM’s facade as a part of the museum’s ongoing Street Views series.

In Orientation, two performers respond to a series of spoken commands which appear in the video’s subtitles. Across this 61-foot wide projection, this larger-than-life pair of bodies grapples, engages, accommodates, and supports one another. This interaction fuses the popular party game Twister with the Chinese practice of feng shui, which strives to create harmony between people and their surroundings through the strategic arrangements of objects in space. 

In Twister, players compete to be the last person balanced on rows of red, yellow, blue, and green dots on a large plastic mat while they receive and respond to instructions like “Left hand, red; right foot, yellow” until someone (or everyone) reaches their physical limits and collapses. In Orientation, Lin reacts only to instructions offered in Mandarin, while Thornton follows a differing set of commands in English. Lin has also adapted the classic Twister format by offering cardinal directions in lieu of colors: “Right foot, south. Left hand, northeast.”

Hai-Wen Lin: Orientation is organized for the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis by Dean Daderko, Ferring Foundation Chief Curator, and Misa Jeffereis, Associate Curator, with support from Grace Early, Exhibitions Assistant.