Echo Morgan

The role of translation, the passage between gesture, body and voice, the shift from Chinese into English and back again, the relationship between live performance and reproductions. Always movement across surfaces, entering and exiting backwards and forwards. I cannot settle on one point, I am in flux, restless.

My name is Echo Morgan, My real Chinese name is Xie Rong. I grew up in ChengDu, I moved to the UK when I was 19. In my work I take on the role of director, performer, narrator and filmmaker. I am collecting and collaging encounters, voices, texts and images from my cultural roots in China and my daily life in the UK. Through the mediums of performance and film I explore the intrinsic and complex relationship between violence, beauty, and vulnerability, re-examining how these antipodal constructs impact ideas of the 'self' and the body. There are three paths in my work: Narrative, Live performance and ‘Re-performance’: My narrative is rooted with my family history. I explore my individual memory that is deeply embodied within China’s complex society - one that had undergone a series of philosophical, ideological and political transformations. My live performances are mostly long endurance, I often transform the surface of my body into symbols and invite viewers to participate, drawing strength from the audience's emotional vulnerability, and feelings of uneasiness, to complete the performance as a whole. Here, my emotions become entwined with the audience's, creating a symbiotic relationship based on control and power.