A performative intergenerational installation, 2026
Sophia Natasha Wei Junhao
Methodist Girls’ School
Lipstick as Trace, Tool and Voice is a performance work that explores lipstick as material, symbol, and social signifier through embodied and participatory actions. Unfolding as a live activation, the work invites intergenerational audiences to reflect on personal memories, stories, and assumptions associated with lipstick—from vanity, intimacy, and desire to questions of identity, labour, and societal expectations of women.
The performance centres on repetitive, deliberate gestures using lipstick stains applied onto a continuous roll of paper and within an acrylic box worn on the artist’s head. Through accumulation, erasure, and transparency, lipstick becomes both a mark-making tool and a residue of presence, foregrounding the body as an active agent where meaning unfolds in real time.
Accompanying objects, including soft lip sculptures and an enlarged lipstick form, extend the narrative beyond the live action, referencing consumption and aesthetics while questioning lipstick’s role in shaping perceptions of femininity. The work concludes by inviting participants to contribute their own marks, transforming the performance into a collaborative and evolving space of shared voices.
What surprised you when you allowed yourself to start with play?
Through play, my attachment to the lipstick shifted into trace, tool, and voice within my performative practice. It records bodily presence, extends gesture through repetition, and communicates emotion and resistance through marks and material action. A familiar cosmetic shifts into a performative material mediating body, space, and meaning through what is left behind.
What is one play hack you would like to share to help fellow teacher-artists experiment and create without expectations?
Use play before purpose. Begin lessons with open-ended material exploration, with no brief or assessment. Introduce concepts only after physical engagement. This reduces anxiety, encourages intuitive discovery, and leads to authentic questions, ownership of ideas, and work grounded in lived experience.
Click here to view the artists’ process!
Read more about ►EDGE 2026 and the existing artworks.
aedge 