Artists Melyn Chow and Kim Zeevalk graduated from the AHK’s Mime School in 2022 with their video installation I happen to be doing this for you: a work at the intersection of mime, video art and body politics, which the artists themselves proudly call ‘mime porn’. Using all kinds of audio visual material, fifteen mime performers allow the audience into their alternative sensual universe.

Early 2023, Melyn and Kim further developed the installation with Frascati Producties. Film journalist KEES Driessen spoke with them about their work.

In person, mimers Melyn Chow and Kim Zeevalk are very much like their video installation I happen to be doing this for you. Confident and searching; serious and enthusiastic. Their videos, presented in a darkened space that visitors enter barefoot, explore an in-between state of sexuality that is both ambiguous and joyful. Where chewing gum and transparent floors are just as important as body parts and movements. And where eroticism is inextricably intertwined with curiosity and having fun. Actually, they explain, it all began with a joke.

Kim: “We were walking around Antwerp and we happened to be talking about porn, when Melyn shared: ‘You know, I don’t like porn.’ And I said: ‘Ha, me neither! But why shouldn’t there be porn we do like?’ And Melyn said: ‘We should, like, make mime porn. That would be nice!’ At first I took it as a joke. And then…”

Melyn: “… we had to decide what to do in our fourth year at Mime School. And I asked Kim: do you still want to do this? Because mime porn makes a lot of sense – as mimers we are creating this sensual universe and we are trained to engage our senses, to move and perform through listening, touch, sight, even taste. And in school we had all the resources. And people we know. So, we decided to go for it. And I’m really glad we did.”

Many artists hide their porn behind the word ‘erotica’. Why did you choose to use the word ‘porn’?

Melyn: “Yeah, we talked about that.” 

Kim: “A lot.” 

Melyn: “One reason we chose ‘porn’ is because it has clear associations with video.”

Although you don’t show so-called ‘explicit’ sexuality.

Kim: “The function of mainstream porn especially, is arousal and climax for the viewer. And we’re looking for something else. We didn’t really know what, but it has to do with taking a step back. To ask: what does it mean to have a body that is capable of arousal?”

Melyn: “It’s about feeling and sensuality. And questioning the hierarchy of bodies and body parts.”

Kim: “I’m sure there are lots of people exploring this, but in my little world I didn’t see it. And by calling it ‘porn’, we wanted to make our work part of the conversation around porn.”

Melyn: “But we’re also creating certain expectations that may disappoint some people.”

You wanted to expand porn?

Melyn: “Kim gave me a book called Pleasure Activism, by adrienne maree brown, and there’s a line I really like: ‘What are we programming ourselves to desire?’ When I read that, my brain smiled: ‘Ah, that’s what we’re doing!’ We’re actually trying to reprogram desire.”

In a way you didn’t see it in any alternative porn?

Kim: “We watched alternative porn and some of it was indeed ‘alternative’; showing bodies that were different than the ones shown in mainstream porn. And showing different ways that pleasure can look like. Which is good, but the formula was still the same: seduction, foreplay, action, climax, and that’s it. I find that action-based storyline very monotonous. That’s where we thought: yeah, that’s what we can bring!”

Melyn: “There exists a lot of racialised power dynamics in porn. As a female Asian porn co-director, it’s very important to me that the bodies we bring into the space are equal. Like the video of the ‘blob’ of people moving together – nobody’s dominant; it’s more abstract.”

Kim: “And why do we need power dynamics at all? This is also why we’re always in dialogue with our performers. How do you feel sexy? Which clothes do you want to wear? How much do you want to take off? We try to find natural ways for them to move, in a context that we think is theatrically interesting. But we never have an exact choreography.”

Melyn: “Some people feel more sexy in underwear or a bra. So the message isn’t: ‘Feeling good about yourself means full nudity.’ We listen to our boundaries and theirs.”

You were inspired by Audre Lorde’s essay Uses of the Erotic, where ‘the erotic’ is a power which can do everything.

Kim: “Which can be used for everything, yeah, and should be used for everything. You can make a cup of coffee and be aware of your vulva – and then it’s gonna look and feel very different. Lorde refuses to confine the erotic to a secluded part of our lives. We’re taught from an early age: if you’re going to masturbate, do it at home and lock the door. But what if we invite the erotic back into everyday life? Then any action can be done sensually.”

Melyn: “Like eating chewing gum. Or putting gel in your hair. Lorde also talks about being guided by feeling and not judging it inferior to analytical thinking. So when we’re filming mime porn, we use our bodies as a compass: does it feel right? Similarly, we guide our performers to listen to their bodies.”

Kim: “That’s at the core of our work, because what we’re trying to capture in our videos is not just an image, it’s a feeling. A felt moment.”

Melyn: “I like how in the skirts scene, they are joyfully doing their own thing, skipping and dancing. And sometimes, they’re also performing for the camera. Because they want to. And then it’s: I see you seeing me. That is why I really like our title, ‘I happen to be doing this for you’. I do this for myself first, and you happen to be there.”

Kim: “So you, the viewer, are also here for me. But I’m also still here for you, and that’s okay.”

This feeds into the ambiguity which is at the heart of the project – and, so they argue, of mime itself.

Kim: “Often when a video doesn’t feel right, it’s because it’s not ambiguous enough.”

Melyn: “When there’s no room for imagination. Then it’s a bit dead for us.”

Kim: “Between sitting and standing, a mimer will always choose the in-between. Where it’s not yet clear where it’s going. I think, Melyn, you even said it to the performers during filming: ‘As soon as you know what you’re doing, change.’ And that keeps it alive and playful. Because our porn is not ‘porn’ in the traditional sense. But it’s also not not porn. It’s like: I’m not completely aroused, but I’m also not feeling nothing. But then: what am I feeling?”

I love the literal ambivalence of the feet videos. The erotic feet scene on one screen; the funny making-of on the opposite; the viewer in between.

Melyn: “As a visitor you can’t see both at the same time. You have to choose. Personally, I love that video, because you can really see the absurdity and the joy of this sisterhood trying to figure it out together.”

Kim: “It’s clear we’re sometimes thinking, ‘What the hell are we doing?!’ But it’s not shame. It’s ‘Oh my god, this is so ridiculous, but so nice!’ The feet alone would’ve never made it into the work because it would’ve been too direct and a bit clichéd, with Vaseline on the lens even. But including the making-of, breaks the fourth wall completely. The extremes make it interesting.”

How does this all relate to Joey Soloway’s presentation on the female gaze you referred to?

Melyn: “One aspect is this acknowledgement of the camera. Allowing the performer to reclaim being looked at. Because if I’m looking at you looking at me, we’re having a dialogue, rather than you just passively observing and objectifying me playing a role.”

Kim: “This dialogue is also very typical for mime. In our work we apply it not only in the videos, but also when we’re thinking about how the audience moves and how their bodies are engaged.”

Melyn: “If they want to watch the skirts scene, they literally have to lift their heads. For another video, they have to lie down.”

Kim: “It’s almost like a treasure map. ‘Oh, there’s something here.’ It encourages a different way of moving through space.”

Melyn: “In making mime porn, it’s important that we move from our pleasure. One of our classmates, Pleuni [Veen], used the term ‘move from your vulva’. I find that very joyful and liberating – even when you don’t exactly know what it means.”

Kim: “Just like we still don’t know, what the fuck is the female gaze? We’re still figuring it out.”

But you know it when you see what isn’t, and what you don’t want.

Kim: “Yeah, yeah. For sure.”

Kim and Melyn are just getting started. They’re expanding the sound design of their wordless work, and moving from videos with one or two performers to groups, consisting of many different bodies.

Melyn: “We haven’t covered the whole spectrum yet. We’re super aware of that. We would love to explore the representation of older and differently abled bodies, for example. That’s why we see this as a continuing work."

The basic principles of which, as far as I can tell, are already emerging in I happen to be doing this for you. No hierarchy, no story. Stepping back, listening to bodies, creating space for the imagination. Being ambiguous, quotidian and conscious of the audience. And always working as equals, with equals, for equals. So that one day, maybe, we will all be equally part of porn.

 I happen to be doing this for you by Melyn Chow and Kim Zeevalk / Frascati Producties was presented in Frascati in January 2023.