Sounding/BODY: Grown From the Same Stem, The Cord Still Hums
Join us for a performance by interdisciplinary artist Bei Qi, exploring space and human connection
sounding/BODY Presents: Grown From the Same Stem, The Cord Still Hums
August 28, 2026
7:30-9:00pm
Doors at 7:00pm
Tickets:
$10 Student – use code STUDENT at checkout
(Valid Student ID will be requested at the door)
$10 IMSS Members Presale – use code IMSSMEMBER at checkout
(Valid IMSS Membership card will be requested at door)
$15 GA Presale
–
$15 Student & IMSS Members (With valid ID & Membership Card) at Door
$20 GA at Door
Grown From the Same Stem, The Cord Still Hums centers on a long green fabric tube that eventually fills the gallery space, connecting two flower sculptures. The tube references both a shared stem and an umbilical cord: the oldest bond between two bodies, present before language, before memory, before separation, and the origin of all distance that follows. The artist wears a large flower headpiece, beginning wrapped near the second flower, from which her mother’s voice emanates, humming a Chinese song she taught the artist in childhood, recorded over a video call across an ocean. At times the recording falters. Lag and interference are introduced into the mother’s voice, and the sonic texture of distance is made audible. Over the course of the performance, the recorded voice transforms, becoming mixed with versions of itself, sounds of oceans, fragments of childhood, and ambient sounds from her mother’s environment in Beijing.
Over the course of an hour, the artist slowly unravels the tube, while it fills the room with the material weight of distance. The further she moves, the harder it becomes to hear her mother’s sound, and the more the room fills with the tube. At the furthest point, when she becomes completely unraveled, she sings the same song back, loudly, across the full length of the space, attempting to return through voice what the body can no longer cross. The audience is invited to step…
Get Tickets
sounding/BODY Presents: Grown From the Same Stem, The Cord Still Hums
August 28, 2026
7:30-9:00pm
Doors at 7:00pm
Tickets:
$10 Student – use code STUDENT at checkout
(Valid Student ID will be requested at the door)
$10 IMSS Members Presale – use code IMSSMEMBER at checkout
(Valid IMSS Membership card will be requested at door)
$15 GA Presale
–
$15 Student & IMSS Members (With valid ID & Membership Card) at Door
$20 GA at Door
Grown From the Same Stem, The Cord Still Hums centers on a long green fabric tube that eventually fills the gallery space, connecting two flower sculptures. The tube references both a shared stem and an umbilical cord: the oldest bond between two bodies, present before language, before memory, before separation, and the origin of all distance that follows. The artist wears a large flower headpiece, beginning wrapped near the second flower, from which her mother’s voice emanates, humming a Chinese song she taught the artist in childhood, recorded over a video call across an ocean. At times the recording falters. Lag and interference are introduced into the mother’s voice, and the sonic texture of distance is made audible. Over the course of the performance, the recorded voice transforms, becoming mixed with versions of itself, sounds of oceans, fragments of childhood, and ambient sounds from her mother’s environment in Beijing.
Over the course of an hour, the artist slowly unravels the tube, while it fills the room with the material weight of distance. The further she moves, the harder it becomes to hear her mother’s sound, and the more the room fills with the tube. At the furthest point, when she becomes completely unraveled, she sings the same song back, loudly, across the full length of the space, attempting to return through voice what the body can no longer cross. The audience is invited to step…
Listed by International Museum of Surgical Science · last updated today