Untitled (metamorphosis or something)

Sitting in her GP’s office a month before this performance, the artist realises it’s happened again.

When asked how she’s been feeling, how she’s really been feeling, she is unable to provide an accurate answer, even to herself.

She connects this to the lifelong anxieties she’s had; centered around the perceived needs of others, and her fear of letting them down. The people she feels need her seem to dictate the rhythm of her thought, then her movements, then her life. She’s started to forget who she is and what she’s here for, for what must be the hundredth time.

In an earnest attempt to understand her self-subjugation, the artist collects words from the people around her about what she might mean to them. With the intention of breaking this cycle, the artist hypothesises her own metamorphosis and rebirth into a world where she acts free of guilt, no longer suppressing her own emotions, opinions and needs.

Content warning: This performance contains nudity, sexual themes, and images of blood

-

Michelle Yuan Fitz-Gerald is a multidisciplinary artist, carer, and ███████████████ living and working on unceded Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri land. She sometimes works under the name Cloud, which is the literal interpretation of her middle name, yún (云), lovingly given to her by her Chinese mother, and lovingly misspelled by her late white father. As an Asian presenting woman, she draws on lived experience in her practice to explore the subjugation of Asian women. Through witnessing and empathic engagement from audiences, her artistic testimony becomes a conduit for self-healing, enabling her to process, reenact, and rewrite autobiographical events while reclaiming internal and sometimes external spaces.

Image: Michelle Yuan Fitz-Gerald, practice fetus, 2025, polyurethane, corn starch, biodegradable tape

-

DRIVEWAY is a new performance program at KINGS Artist-Run of monthly public events such as performances, film screenings, poetry readings, and more, hosted in the KINGS driveway. In 2025 this initiative is supported by the City of Melbourne through the Annual Arts Grants Program.

Host or Publisher KINGS Artist-Run