From Inner Worlds to Outer Space: The Multimedia Performances of Dan Kwong

Praise for Dan Kwong: Somehow, Kwong has held onto his sense of childlike wonder about the cosmos, and that awe informs his free-wheeling and uproarious performance. -Asian Week

He weaves striking, multi-focus stage pictures around simple monologues about his Chinese and Japanese grandfathers, ironic accounts of his own childhood, and litanies of the trials facing Asian American males. -L.A. Times

Saturated with high-spirited enthusiasm … a refreshingly forthright approach to his often dark material. -Chicago Tribune

Kwong’s humor is warm and loving … it stems from a delightfully twisted taste for the absurdity of human behavior… . Be prepared to laugh, to be moved, and to fall in love with a performer. -L.A. Reader

Dan Kwong’s performances delve into the complexities of growing up as a working-class Chinese-Japanese-American male in L.A., land of Hollywood and Disney. Kwong’s remarkable performances, a potent array of multimedia effects and athletic physicalization, investigate questions of identity and the intersecting effects of race, culture, class, gender, and sexuality. From Inner Worlds to Outer Space brings together Kwong’s scripts with illuminating commentary by critic Robert Vorlicky. The book includes interviews that reveal Kwong’s personal and artistic influences, his evolution as an artist, and his philosophical and technical approach to art-making.