CAST-OFF by Alice Z Jones + Dis Fig

’CAST-OFF’ is a collaborative audiovisual project exploring bodies in crisis, theories of dissent, and potential healing practices through art and music making. Taking Japanese choreographer Tatsumi Hijikata’s notion of a ‘casting-off’ of society-approved notions of identity as a starting point, artist Alice Z Jones and producer Dis Fig (aka Felicia Chen) draw inspiration from butoh, shamanistic rituals, cyberpunk and the techno-poetics of Afrofuturism. They imagine possibilities for fracture—if only temporary—from a past, present and foreseeable future of affliction of life under oppressive systems. From social injustice, sickness, and technologically-enhanced violence to the physical and mental weight, an ever-increasing pressure put on those who exist on the margins, “CAST-OFF” converses with its audience through a combination of found footage, improvisational performance, and hypnotic and transitory sound. It moves through a myriad of histories, into the present day, while centering liminal and pe