Eisa Jocson: Princess Studies. Fantasy, Work and Happiness

Para Site presents Princess Studies: Fantasy, Work and Happiness, a work in progress and discussion with Eisa Jocson as part of Para Site’s ongoing Hong Kong’s Migrant Domestic Workers Project.

Following Jocson’s Hong Kong premiere of “Macho Dancer” in 2014, she was invited this year to participate in Para Site’s International Art Residency (PSIAR) to investigate the migration of labour and economy of performance in Hong Kong’s mainstream service industry, a research trajectory she has previously tackled in the early 2000s. In Hong Kong, one of the moments of intersection between labour and performance occurs in amusement parks, which employ a large number of Philippine professional dancers as entertainers.

Currently in the final phase of her research, Jocson collaborates with dancer Joshua Serafin to manifest her research on physical gestures, props, and body language employed by entertainers in these mainstream amusement parks. In her performance, Jocson examines and deconstructs the intricate programming of the body used to convey an environment of constructed happiness, attainable desires, and reassured wellbeing. The performance is followed by a discussion with Jocson on her performance and research.