Young Tseng makes work with mime, movement, and installation. His work comes out of the experience of shifting perspectives that can occur when, in the course of performance and preparing for performance, one is paying close attention — listening — to space, time, movement, stillness, and human and non-human presences. In everything he makes, Young Tseng seeks to share the experience of bringing attention to one’s presence. By doing so he hopes to create bubbles of time in which people might sit together, listen, and find their own possibilities for change.
Artist Location: Claremont, CA
Social Media:
PARTICIPATION
Bureau of Thanks is a ‘listening post’ — an opportunity for visitor-participants to have the undivided attention of another human being, to be listened to. This interactive performance-installation is inspired by memories of form-fillers and petition writers who practiced their trade outside government offices in Malaysia where I grew up. It is also inspired by LA poet Jen Hofer’s *escritorio publico* love-letter project.
In Bureau of Thanks I set up a desk to listen and scribe handwritten Thank You notes addressed to, “a Person, a Place, or a Time.” Messages are dictated to me, the scribe, by visitor-participants. I request permission to retain a carbon copy of the note as a gift from the visitor-participant. The original note is given to the visitor-participant with an envelope to send it to its intended recipient. Carbon copied notes are collected in a small binder that other participants can read. Some anonymized notes are posted to the Bureau of Thanks Instagram account.
Performance October 29, 2023
at Torrance Art Museum’s Nomad II
Virtual Breakout During the Outbreak June 6th Livestream
Bureau of Thanks
Bureau of Thanks online version:
As part of soundpedro 2020 I will be scribing Thank You notes online together with participants in my piece, Bureau of Thanks on June 12, 19, 25, and 26. I’m using Zoom for convenience but, in keeping with the original form and intention of Bureau of Thanks, each interaction will be one-on-one while other participants wait in the Zoom Waiting Room. No video or audio will be captured or streamed. This is not a group meeting or a livestream. Only Thank You notes that participants choose to give to Bureau of Thanks will be posted on Instagram @bureauofthanks and on my Facebook page @youngtsengwork. Gifting your note is optional. Please register if you would like to dictate a Thank You note to me for scribing!
Please use the web link below or copy it into your web browser to go to a registration page for Bureau of Thanks online version:
https://volunteersignup.org/D8LY3
More information is given on the registration page. Further details will be emailed to registered participants. The number of participants is limited to only 8 at the moment because the process is slow and I want to take care not to make you wait too long on hold. However, more hours or dates may be added if necessary. Feedback and comments for improvement are most welcome! DM me on Instagram, send a message to me in Facebook Messenger, or email me. I regret that I can only offer this version of Bureau of Thanks in English and Bahasa Malaysia at this time.
Credits for inspiring the form and spirit of this piece to the itinerant petition writers of my childhood, to the tradition and livelihood of escritorio publico, and to poet Jen Hofer. I am grateful to the ancestors, descendants, and people of the former villages of *Toibingna*, *Torojoatngna*, *Joatngna*, *Momwahomomutngna*, *Passinongna*, *Wapijangna*, *Weniingna* and others unknown or lost, on whose lands I live as a guest while I do this work.
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Proposed work as accepted for soundpedro 2020:
Bureau of Thanks
Bureau of Thanks is an interactive installation-performance inspired by memories of itinerant form-fillers and petition writers who plied their trade outside government offices in Malaysia where I grew up. It is also inspired by LA poet Jen Hofer’s *escritorio publico* love-letter project.
In Bureau of Thanks I set up a desk to listen and scribe handwritten Thank You notes addressed to, “a Person, a Place, or a Time.” The messages are dictated to me by visitor-participants. I request permission to retain a carbon copy of the note, a gift from the visitor-participant to me. The original hand-scribed note is then put in an envelope and given to the visitor-participant to send to its intended recipient, if they wish.
Bureau of Thanks comes from my desire to create a “listening post” in reaction to the present time and worldwide culture that privileges speaking forcefully over listening carefully. With Bureau of Thanks I want to create an opportunity for visitor-participants to experience the undivided attention of another human being for a brief moment, to be listened to. All site requirements and equipment requests are focused toward this end.
Bureau of Thanks is an interactive installation-performance inspired by memories of form-fillers and petition writers set up with typewriters and folding tables outside the DMV offices in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where I grew up. It is also inspired by LA poet Jen Hofer’s *escritorio publico* love-letter project.
In Bureau of Thanks I set up a desk to listen and scribe handwritten Thank You notes addressed to, “a Person, a Place, or a Time.” The messages are dictated to me by visitor-participants. I request permission to retain a carbon copy of the note, a gift from the visitor-participant to me. The original hand-scribed note is given to the visitor-participant with an envelope to send the note to its intended recipient, if they wish. The carbon copies are posted, suspended like prayer flags around the Bureau of Thanks, creating an ephemeral installation. Early versions of Bureau of Thanks were performed outdoors, usually sited near or under a tree. The carbon copied notes were attached to long colored threads so that visitors could read them.
Bureau of Thanks comes from my desire to create a “listening post” in reaction to the present time and worldwide culture that privileges speaking forcefully over listening carefully. With Bureau of Thanks I hope to create an opportunity for visitor-participants to experience a brief moment of being listened to, to have the undivided attention of another human being. All site requirements and equipment requests are focused toward this end.