Marina and Ulay

Yuhanxiao (Maggie) Ma

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Yuhanxiao (Maggie) Ma is a multimedia artist and PhD student in Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS) at the University of Washington. She works at the intersection of speculative fiction, science, and ethics. Through sculptural works, multimedia installations, speculative documents, and image-based practices, she examines tensions between care and control, visibility and interpretation. Her work stages subtle disruptions within familiar systems, inviting viewers to question how authority, evidence, and identity are constructed.

Marina and Ulay (2023) remakes Abramović and Ulay's Rest Energy, a performance in which a drawn bow and arrow held between two bodies kept both in place, through a new set of objects: broken chains, rope, and a one-way mirror. The tension of the original is reimagined through these fabricated substitutes, asking what remains when the original encounter is translated into new form.