It’s Always You - Sin Wai Kin’s Infinite Universe - Narrative Reflections on Looking and A Dream of a Wholeness in Parts

Oct 6, 2026

A Dream of a Wholeness in Parts and the earlier Narrative Reflections on Looking trace Sin Wai Kin’s evolution from a hyper-femme drag persona toward a new artistic universe. The text analyzes how voiced reflections and theatrical staging confront idealised Western femininity, using drag as speculative practice while expanding themes of transformation and non-binary narration. It also reads the film’s characters, mirrored selves, and interwoven dreams through Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, mapping a battle of opposites onto a form that holds competing perspectives together.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

It’s Always You: Sin Wai Kin’s Infinite Universe

Evolution from drag persona to Wai Kin

Narrative Reflections on Looking

A Dream of a Wholeness in Parts: characters and universe

The Construct and The Universe: opposites and non-binary form

Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction and interwoven dreams

PAGE 31 4 Journal Enquiry Context AFTERALL ARTISTS Sin Wai Kin It’s Always You: Sin Wai Kin’s In!nite Universe Stephanie Bailey AFTERALL AFTERALL PAGE 31 6 A Journal of Art, Context and Enquiry IT’S ALWAYS YOU: SIN WAI KIN’S INFINITE UNIVERSE Stephanie Bailey In 2021, Victoria Sin became Sin Wai Kin, an evolution that occurred in tandem with the artist’s departure from the drag performances for which they had become known. Narrative Reflections on Looking (2016–17), a series of four single-channel videos featuring the hyper-femme drag persona that Sin developed in London’s queer club scene, exempli!es what preceded this transition. Embodying the exaggerated glamour of a mid-century Technicolor Hollywood pin-up, the artist poses in theatrical settings as the camera explores their body, which in Preface/Looking Without Touching (2017) lies on red silk wearing red lingerie, faux fur and thigh-high boots. Across these videos, Sin’s voice-over teases identity as a negotiation between internal and external experiencesand projections. In Part One/She Was More Than the Sum of My Parts (2016), they talk about trying to connect with a magazine image of a woman who looks like them. Then, in Part Three/Cthulhu Through the Looking Glass (2017), they describe placing that image on their face. Sin has described Narrative Reflections on Looking as a confrontation with idealised images of Western femininity that enabled the artist to rede!ne their relationship to them.‘Within an imagebased culture, the images we are bombarded with every day – which represent and reify cultural constructs like gender –prevent us from seeing past pre-existing categories,’ they told artist Himali Singh Soin in 2019, in a conversation reflecting on the way ideals are con!gured into sociocultural constructs.1 ‘Drag is a safe place for me to act on my desire and take pleasure in embodying things that the culture I’m present in has always told me I want to be, while atthe same time presenting them as a fallacy.’2 Engaging drag as a speculative practice intersecting science !ction and fantasy, these ideas expanded signi!cantly in the single-channel video A Dream of a Wholeness in Parts (2020–21), the !rst work Sin produced as Wai Kin. Featuring new characters performed entirely by the artist, A Dream of a Wholeness in Parts opens up a universe where ideas of transformation continuously upend limited constructions of being – a theme that Sin has since developed in subsequent works, each one connecting back to ideas the artist expressed in this trajectoryde!ning composition. In the !rst scene, two !gures sit across a table. They are styled identically in a white pant suit and dramatic chopines, with a blazer buttoned at the belly framing bare synthetic breasts as silver chains cascade down their intermammary cle"s from a choker.3 Long black hair cut into a blunt fringe, terraces around each jaw: a wig of Sin’s hair, which is also shown alongside the !lm as the sculpture Costume for Dreaming (2021) . Both their lips are black-lined beyond the mouth’s edges and gradate into a rich crimson !ll – a call-back to Sin’s early drag. The two characters are in fact di\#erent versions of the same persona, The Construct. What distinguishes them are their theatrical visages, painted in the style of leading female roles known as Daan in Chinese opera, with colours signifying speci!c traits. The Construct sitting on the le" has eyebrows that slant up Previous spread: Portraits—Film still from Sin Wai Kin, The Universe, 2023 © the artist. Image courtesy of the artist and So! Opening, London in a dramaturgical display of concern, with a blue wash around the eyes forming sculptural edges along the nose before fading into pink cheeks, signifying bravery and loyalty. Their alterego on the right wears green and yellow contouring to create the menacing glare of a femme fatale, symbolising irascibility and cruelty. They play a chess game, which mirrors their

FAQs

How does Sin Wai Kin’s evolution connect to the shift from drag performances?

In 2021, Victoria Sin became Sin Wai Kin as the artist departed from the drag performances she was known for. Narrative Reflections on Looking (2016–17) is presented as what preceded that transition.

What does Narrative Reflections on Looking explore according to the text?

It confronts idealised images of Western femininity and describes identity as negotiation between internal and external experiences and projections. Drag is framed as a safe space to embody desires while exposing them as a fallacy.

How is A Dream of a Wholeness in Parts structured thematically?

It features new characters performed entirely by the artist and opens a universe where transformation repeatedly upends limited constructions of being. The text highlights seven interwoven dreams and a collapse of linearity, linked to the film’s multiple characters.

Oct 6, 2026

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