How BTS and Mirror help Hong Kong artist represent nonbinary genders and fluidity of existence
- Boy bands including the K-pop and Canto-pop giants form the central idea behind Sin Wai-kin’s new Hong Kong exhibition ‘It’s Always You’
- The non-binary artist plays four different male roles in a fictional boy band, complete with music videos and life-size cut-outs
Halfway through our interview, Sin Wai-kin says they might have played Victoria Sin for the last time in summer 2020.
Given that Victoria Sin happens to be the English name of the non-binary artist, who prefers to be referred to by the pronouns “they” and “their”, the statement suggests a deeper transformation and is not merely an actor’s declaration of putting their most beloved role to bed.
For someone who performs in drag within speculative fictional worlds, “Victoria Sin” and “Sin Wai-kin” (Sin’s Chinese birth name, which is not particularly male or female) have also been the artist’s main characters embodying different gender and cultural ideals.
The 30-year-old, who describes themselves as being assigned female at birth, performed for years as Victoria Sin, a voluptuous, heavily made-up platinum blonde vixen inspired by Marilyn Monroe and Jessica Rabbit. The artist, born in Toronto to a Chinese father and Caucasian English mother, adopted the camp femininity of drag queens and painted faces reminiscent of Chinese opera characters as a way to question the socially constructed nature of gender, and the fluidity of identity.
But for the opening of “It’s Always You”, a solo exhibition at Hong Kong’s Blindspot Gallery, Sin is sticking to being Sin Wai-kin.
