Lu Lin

Reading My Panties is a publishing practice focused on the subject of clothing, creating a space for showcasing the ways in which our underwear connects us with our bodies and identities. The project focuses on discussions of femininity and how it structures our daily lives, and in a playful manner aims to experiment with multiple ways of story-telling by using and remaking the everyday object of panties. The project aims to form a co-learning environment to rethink what we have learned and how we were impacted in an intercultural context. The project was first exhibited at W139 in Amsterdam, accompanied by a series of installations and the launch of a zine publication of the same title. Further presentations and workshops which formed parts of this project, and took place in the contexts of Cinemasia in Amsterdam, Lataren Venster in Rotterdam, and Rozet in Arnhem. A performance created specifically for This Art Fair was presented on July 10th with co-performer artist Qiaochu Guo invited by Dit Doen Wij Ook Collectief.

In Asian, talking or showing panties is registered as tabooed, unchaste, and rebellious. In 2021, a group of anti-coup protesters in Myanmar hanged women’s clothes across the streets to stall the advance of the military, in yet another creative way of protest people in the country are using to assert their defiance against the junta. And for patriarchal reasons, touching women’s undergarments signals losing power. Through the performance, the performer will use the act of hanging as a main way of presenting with reading as a narrative forming a daily scenario. Hanging as a pretest aims to trigger the thinking of unconscious response of shyness or awkwardness through pushing the boundaries of discomfort. Reading material: "Shabby Panties" from Reading My Panties: a collective manifesto zine.

“Walking under women’s underwear gives you bad luck.”

It’s a quote existing in every Chinese people’s mind. Women’s panty, in Chinese tradition is regarded as a taboo which was added countless sense of shame and learned regulations. Because it’s a taboo, we are not allowed to ask why; because it’s a taboo, we are not able to question whether it’s true.

Living as we did, we have to develop a particular way of learning, especially as Chinese women. We learned sex education from peers or from mistakes of our own experiences. Collective learning becomes a crucial way.

This exhibition is emphasising the power of small things in our everyday wardrobes. From a very young age, we learn the rules of society and of social expectations through embodying our underwears. Pink, lace, and floral prints represent feminine expression; elastic band, neutral colour, minimal design, stripe or grid patterns showcase the masculine expression. The mainstream design of underwear/panties showcases a clear expression of sexes and adds intentional ornaments for emphasizing the differentiations. We embodied it every day and learnt the stereotypical gender expression unknowingly. For this, it is necessary that we can aware of this societal alienation and acknowledge our initiative through co-unlearning and co-creating.

The project is a representation of the zine, Reading My Panties. It is a collective zine for the underrepresented discussions on panties, drawing on theories of intersectionality and feminism.