Yasala Yasala (2025)
A radical sonic response to Atayal poet Sayun Nomin, this curatorial work — comprising an experimental performance and three sound art installations — enacts a "chronicle of failure" in cross-cultural ethnography. Pangcah artist Ihot utilizes solo spoken word and experimental acoustics to interrogate the boundaries of approximating the cultural Other. From the position of an outsider looking into other indigenous groups, the work rigorously centers deep listening and orality to reflect on "pan-indigeneity" and the distinctions between different Indigenous nations, moving to access non-linguistic memory and emotion. It defamiliarizes sound and transforms it into an auditory distance that is simultaneously familiar and foreign, thereby destabilizing academic concepts of "the field" and re-establishing the disciplinary boundaries between Indigenous and colonial contexts. The overall assemblage summons unbroken indigenous oral traditions through a provisional, performative structure.
Premiere- [Interdisciplinary Stage], [Taipei, Taiwan]— [2025.11]
Misikol (2025)
Pangcah: “To Look Back & To Care For”
This performance experiment fuses poetic physicality and immersive cinema, debating the boundaries of consciousness and ethnic identity through the lens of memory.
Staged as a solo performance within an immersive projection theater, the work deploys eighteen 8K projectors alongside massive rear- and floor-projection surfaces to create a disorienting, enveloping visual environment. In a future where memories are externalized via XR, a caregiver, Maya—an ordinary human—illegally accesses the final recollections of Namoh, the last "Indigenous person."
As she lives through his tribal world memories, the lines between their selves blur, plunging her into a profound debate on medical ethics and the ownership of ethnic memory. The deployment of imagery is multifaceted, creating moments that are at times humorous, then spiraling into chaos, and finally generating an overwhelming despair that speaks to the ineffability of memory.
By manipulating different resolutions and projection angles, the work rigorously interrogates the power and control visual media wields in shaping the image of Indigenous peoples. Through Maya's journey—from curiosity and ethical struggle to utter bewilderment—the piece takes the audience on a visually dominant, yet constantly destabilizing, journey that questions the relationship between sight, authenticity, and emotion. Upon Namoh's death, Maya inherits his past. Who is she now?
Premiere—[Black Box Theater, National Taiwan Science Education Center], [Taipei, Taiwan] — [2025]
Misikol- The silenced memories of Namoh.
rayrayrayray (2025)
rayrayrayray by Ihot Sinlay Cihek enters a post-human dystopian ruin, grounded in Pangcah sikawasay—the shamanic tradition—and layered with artificial voice and electronic sound. This is an immersive experience structured for two characters, challenging the temporal and spatial boundaries between the human and non-human, the mortal and the divine.
Her body becomes that of a contemporary shaman—called through illness—navigating the sonic interstices of myth and machine. In this apocalyptic world governed by technology, the work poses a fundamental question: As one of the last remaining humans, what final plea would you offer to summon ancestral protection?
Through ritual and performance, the artist fights against forgetting and enters into dialogue with ancestral spirits. The piece tenderly yearns for the sacred moment of final encounter between the Ancestor and the Human, a profound act of grace. Even against a backdrop of technological Avatars and celebratory chaos, the single human voice and its spectral echo are engaged in a simple, pure chant, making their mutual invocation utterly reasonable and resonant. This is a migration of spirit across fractured worlds—a movement to rethread cultural memory in a time of disintegration.
Premiere-
Date ＆ Time｜19:00–20:30, August 15 (Friday) ＆ August 16 (Saturday) (A post-show talk will follow each performance)
Venue｜ KIRI Indigenous Cultural and Creative Park (No. 100, Sec. 2, Dacheng Rd., Dayuan District, Taoyuan City)
The Knife 2.0 (2024)
a one (indigenous) woman show
13-15 December 2024
(Still a (Pangcah) woman solo show.)
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Sawmah, an ordinary Pangcah woman who yearns for a simple life in the city, impulsively steals her deceased grandfather's hunting knife from his funeral and brings it back to Taipei.
However, upon returning to Taipei, Sawmah realizes that the knife is taboo in her tribe and forbidden for women to touch.
When the forbidden hunting knife rolls out of Sawmah's suitcase and gets stuck in her room doorway—
* Can Sawmah still go to her crucial job interview tomorrow?
* Will the ancestral spirits really protect her?
* Will misfortune befall her because she has accidentally touched her grandfather's knife?
* If she's touched it once, will touching it again bring more bad luck?
* But the knife is now lying on the floor of her small attic apartment in Datong District, Taipei. If she doesn't touch it, will it have to stay there forever?
She can escape the tribe, but she cannot escape the taboo.
How will Sawmah ever get out?
As Sawmah's hand touches the knife she has seen since childhood, the knife that has tasted blood, nourished her and her family, the knife both familiar and distant, she suddenly understands — the taboo of the hunting knife will haunt her for a very long time. And her already complex relationship with her tribe is destined to become even more entangled.
Partnered with @prologuecenter
Photos by @aaron_lhk
HOW ROMANTIC: A GUIDE TO MODERN PANGCAH LIFE
a one (indigenous) woman show
Since 2018, Ihot Sinlay Cihek has been actively tracing her own cultural roots, attempting to tease out the barriers and contradictions she has experienced as a contemporary Pangcah woman as she revisits the Pangcah tradition, exploring a contemporary indigenous youth’s return to the tribe and the estrangement she experiences. How Romantic: A Guide to Modern Pangcah Life stems from the artist’s return to her own native tribe after living in the city for years. As she observes the trend of cultural revival carried out by young indigenous people who return to their tribes, through their interactions with families and tribespeople, she notices their difficulties and awkwardness when trying to blend in. With poignant humor and sarcasm, the production questions sharply about the negotiation between contemporary indigenous tribes and modern capitalism, as well as the strategies and nostalgia of indigenous cultural workers.
How Romantic: A Guide to Modern Pangcah Life
Production Team
Producer/Playwright/Director/Actor｜ Ihot Sinlay Cihek
Executive Director｜Peng Hsu
Executive Producer｜Ni-Hsuan Wang, Hsin-Yu Nian
Marketing Specialist｜ Miling'an Batjezuwa
Visual Designer｜ Navi Matulaian
Stage Manager｜Chi-yi Chang
Set Designer｜Yi-Fang Chung
Lighting Designer｜ Chun-Yen Huang
Live Sound Engineer｜ Hsu-Hua Chen
Featuring Music Artists｜Sung-En Chien、Ping-Heng Tsai、Kacaw Iyang、Sayun Nomin、Yen-Ling Hsu
Dramaturg｜Li-Sheng Chang、Yun-Ting Chu、Hsuei-Ming Li、Yen-Ling Hsu
Still Photographer｜Hsin-Che Li、Marang
Filming｜Yen-Hung Chen
