NAME: Tseng, Muna

BIRTH DATE/LOCATION:
10 August 1953, Hong Kong

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Muna Tseng in SlutForArt a.k.a Ambiguous Ambassador (1998), a performance piece created by Tseng in homage to her brother, the performance artist and photographer Tseng Kwong Chi, who died of AIDS in 1990. Photo: Beatriz Schiller, courtesy Muna Tseng Dance Projects

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  • identification & bio
  • key contact
  • human repositories
  • video documentation
  • photographic documentation
    		•
  • movement notation
  • production materials
  • oral history
  • personal papers
  • immediate needs
    		•
  • other relevant information
  • overview of works
  • bibliography
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    IDENTIFICATION AND BIO:
    Muna Tseng is a choreographer and dancer who, with theater director Ping Chong, created a performance piece in homage to her brother, the performance artist and photographer Tseng Kwong Chi, who died of AIDS in 1990. In SlutForArt a.k.a. Ambiguous Ambassador—premiered 2 March 1998 at the 92nd Street Y in New York City—Tseng plays the dual roles of herself and her brother. Tseng and Ping Chong received a New York Dance and Performance Award ("Bessie") for this elegiac piece. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Tseng studied with Magda and Gertrude Hanova and began to make her own choreography at 17. Moving to New York in 1978, she became the protege of Jean Erdman and Joseph Campbell at their Theater of the Open Eye. Muna Tseng Dance Projects was founded in 1988 with the intention—according to press materials—"of uniting the bold, contemporary vision of her new homeland with the exquisite, timeless imagery of her Chinese heritage."

    KEY CONTACT PERSON(S)/EXECUTOR OF ESTATE:
    Muna Tseng Dance Projects Inc.
    The Estate of Tseng Kwong Chi
    115 Christopher Street, 4th floor
    New York, NY 10014-4230, USA
    212-627-5638 (phone)
    212-645-5319 (fax)
    mtseng@nyc.rr.com
    www.munatseng.org

    HUMAN REPOSITORIES OF THE WORK
    (name and contact info, relationship to the artist and the work, assessment):
    Muna Tseng

    VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
    (location, format, condition, assessment):
    Muna Tseng holds a single-camera performance document of SlutForArt. No documentation is available at the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library.

    PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION
    (location, format, condition, assessment):
    Muna Tseng holds photographs by the photographers Dave King and Beatriz Schiller in her files.

    MOVEMENT NOTATION
    (location, type [including notes taken by dancers], assessment):
    None identified.

    PRODUCTION MATERIALS
    (scores, sound recordings, set/costume designs):
    These materials are in Muna Tseng's possession.

    ORAL HISTORY:
    While there is no oral history per se, SlutForArt constitutes a performed oral history of Muna Tseng's brother, Tseng Kwong Chi. Included in the piece are soundtape interviews of Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Kristoffer Haynes, Bill T. Jones, Ann Magnuson, Richard Martin, Kenny Scharf, and Jenny Yee regarding Tseng Kwong Chi. The script of SlutForArt was published in Tokens?: The NYC Asian American Experience On Stage, edited by Alvin Eng and published in 1999 by Temple University Press for the Asian American Writer's Workshop.

    PERSONAL PAPERS
    (location of newspaper clippings, printed programs, press releases, notes, files, diaries; assessment):
    These materials are in the possession of Muna Tseng.

    IMMEDIATE NEEDS
    (archival assistance? storage? other?):
    Notation.

    OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:
    The photographs of Tseng Kwong Chi are exhibited on-line as part of the Estate Project's Virtual Collection.

    Tseng Kwong Chi was born 6 Septrember 1950 and died 10 March 1990.

    The "Bessie" citation, dated 24 September 1999, reads thus: "In recognition of outstanding creative achievement during the 1998-1999 season to Ping Chong & Muna Tseng for a poignant and celebratory elegy of a life lived large in art, a public witnessing in love and honor from the living to the dead in SlutForArt."

    Tseng continues to tour with this piece, including performances at La MaMa ETC., New York City, 3-13 October 2002.

    LIST OR OVERVIEW OF WORKS
    (title, premiere date, music, production notes, performers):

    SlutForArt (1998)—presented by the 92nd Street Y at Playhouse 91, New York City, 2 March; by Muna Tseng and Ping Chong; performed by Muna Tseng; on the life and art of photographer Tseng Kwong Chi; with the voices of Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Kristoffer Haynes, Bill T. Jones, Ann Magnuson, Richard Martin, Kenny Scharf, and Jenny Yee; production design by Jan Hartley; lighting by Mark London; sound by Brian Hallas, costumes by Han Feng.

    BIBLIOGRAPHY:

    • Anderson, Jack. 1999. "Family Memories Spoken in a Ceremony of Loss." New York Times (6 March).
    • Bacalzo, Dan. 2001. "Portraits of Self and Others: SlutForArt and the Photographs of Tseng Kwong Chi." Theater Journal (March).
    • Carr, C. 1998. "Just Visiting This Planet." Village Voice (n.d.).
    • Chong, Ping, and Muna Tseng. 1999. "SlutForArt." Tokens? The NYC Asian American Experience On Stage. Ed. Alvin Eng. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
    • Kaplan, Esther. 1999. "Afterimage." POZ (June).
    • Kourlas, Gia. 1998. "Love Resurrection." Time Out New York (n.d.): 78.
         		 
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