Los Angeles-based patron-martyr of carbon-free living, culture jammer, and performance artist Kristina Wong returns to the Arsht Center for the premiere of Going Green the Wong Way. Described as performance art meets stand-up comedy, Going Green the Wong Way recounts Wong’s misadventures and life-long attempt to live an eco-friendly lifestyle. As it turns out, going green isn’t so easy. I spoke to Wong about her work, culture jamming, and the power source for her irreverent and creative spirit.

Neil de la Flor: I read that you’re a culture jammer— a performer who subverts a space that’s not intended for public performances. Why? What is it about subverting a space that makes it a stage for social discourse?

Kristina Wong: When I first started to make theater work, I was frustrated by limited audiences of live theater. I love the analog of theater, but I also felt like even the process of making people buy tickets and commit to watching a theater show was alienating to a lot of people who could benefit from the ideas of theater. Plus, renting or getting invited by theaters is infrequent and a pain in the butt. So somehow, I decided to just show up in places not intended for “performances.” My first project was bigbadchinesemama.com which was actually my project out of college. The site went up in 2000, pre-friendster.com (remember that dinosaur?). It used to actually turn up when you searched for “mail order brides” and got people really angry. 

ND: I was never a Friendster. I read that in your solo performance Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (not to be confused with Going Green the Wong Way) you explore “the remarkably high incidence of suicide among Asian American women in a world that’s more nuts than we are.” This caught my attention. Why is the world more nuts and when will the world ever nut-free?

KW: You need me to explain to you why the world is more nuts that we are? Do you realize the number one show in America is where has-been celebs learn to ballroom dance and then revive their careers by hosting said show?! Anyway, we won’t ever be nut free. Because we all came from one seed in the nuts.

ND: What do you think about the media’s recent coverage of gay bullying that has led to suicides around the country?

KW: I think it’s absolutely important that the news has been doing so much coverage on gay teen suicides, bullying and homophobia. These gay teen suicides, and suicides in general, reflect a bigger crisis about our world when people feel so tortured they can’t stand being in their own bodies. I hope it is a dialogue that is ongoing. What I would hope is that deeper discussions about homophobia and tolerance happen. Not being homophobic is more than just “keeping your mouth shut” while just dealing with your gay neighbor, but really learning civility and compassion for other human beings and working to dismantle the systems that enforce inequality.

ND: Is Kristina Wong’s identity pure concept?

KW: I think identity is an ever-evolving, site-specific conceptual art piece. Especially now when so many of our human interactions are virtual and so much of our living is presented publicly as self-conscious tweets in ever-evolving public digital galleries.

ND: Where, oh where do you get all of this creative energy? Do you have creative body-doubles? If so, can I borrow one?

KW: I tell you. I’m afraid I’ll run out of ideas. Here’s the secret. Ninety-eight percent of my time is doing arts administration so that 2 percent of the time I can actually make some art. I would love a clone of me who can do all my admin so I can make the art. And when I get that time to do nothing but create art, I find myself hiding in bed from my scripts — terrified of making the unknown.

ND: How do you define the edge between what’s too personal and what’s too political? Or do you?

KW: When the last relationship I was in ended, the first thing he said when it was officially over was “I hope you don’t put this in a show.” This only solidified the misconception that solo performers just read from their diary onstage, that every interaction I have becomes fodder for a show (or interview!).

I’ve been making an active effort to carve out a personal life these last few months because I have been so invested the last few years in creating my work that my life was becoming an extension of my shows, rather than my shows were an extension of my life. It’s hard when I meet new people because they want to hear about my shows, and talking about my shows feels like recapping the workday. Living in LA as an artist is so difficult, because it’s hard to say when a dinner is a dinner or a networking meeting.

There are actually a few topics that are very hard for me to talk about honestly. Sex is a tricky topic to talk about because my folks read my blog and my interviews and would freak out if I started talking publicly about not being a virgin. Luckily, they have no reason to freak out because I AM a virgin. Yeah, believe it.

ND: Is it all about you?

KW: Of course not. Now why would a solo performer be inherently self-indulgent or self-exploratory? Hogwash! For we are the most selfless people in the world!

ND: You wrote that your “latest endeavor is writing impossible (and sometimes horribly offensive) proposals for performance projects that I have no idea how to creatively execute.  If the proposal is accepted,” you say, “I must take on the challenge of bringing the invisible to life.” Is the invisible just the visible “in” disguise?

KW: With enough wine, everything invisible is visible again and not visible. And then when you wake up the next morning with last night’s clothes on, you have a headache.

ND: Favorite meal?

KW: Ethiopian food on Merkato on Fairfax Ave. in Los Angeles! Asa Tibbs!

ND: After Big Bad Chinese Mama, what’s next for the future of mail-order brides?

KW: I don’t know. That project is 10 years old. In the art world there’s been a backlash against “political” work or work that looks like public service announcements. And sometimes I get really jaded about “art with a message,” especially after having toured this show on suicide and depression for four years.

I just saw Lynn Nottage’s Ruined which won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. It was about the situation of women in the Congo. The writing and acting is incredible. And it puts a human face, albeit theatricized, to the situation. It got me excited about theater again and knocked me out of that cynical place where actually talking about real things was “not post modern enough.”

ND: Tell us about Going Green the Wong Way.

KW: Going Green the Wong Way was a show created almost totally by accident. A year ago, I did slide shows around Hollywood about how I had tried to run my car Harold on vegetable oil, unintentionally becoming the poster girl for alternative fuel and proof that anyone could get off big oil. However, under the press mentions, the city-wide notoriety, and the gleam of my car’s chrome was an abusive relationship with a bio-diesel car that was betraying me. Endless repairs, breakdowns, and the difficulties of finding fuel evaded my hopes of sustainable living. It took Harold almost killing me on the 405 freeway to realize, that I’d have to cut my losses, and find other ways to live green.

My entire life from age 11 can be traced along the environmental movement where multiple attempts at green martyrdom have slapped me repeatedly in the face.  And like the girl, who still believes in love, I go back to trying to do the right thing.  Because you have to believe that sustainability is possible right? This show traces my entire coming of age from the Joan of Arc visions I got from Mother Earth at age 11 to … Are all moments that happened because of my involvement in the green movement.

Wong’s tips for Going Green the Wong Right Wong Way:

Conserve water, drink alcohol instead. BYOC  (bring your own chopsticks and save trees). One of my favorite Los Angeles arts organizations sells them off their site. Also, go to public places where you can share the air conditioning, like the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts Nov. 18-20!

Going Green the Wong Way, Carnival Studio Theater, Arsht Center, Nov. 18-20. Tickets, $35 (Seniors  $30). For more information about Kristina Wong visit www.kristinawong.com . For more information about Mad Cat Theatre. To order tickets online visit www.arshtcenter.org.