Drawing on personal memory and returning to the site of the takeaway, Mo has created a new  piece called 'Upstairs', based on memories of a room above the family's shop that housed a large Taoist shrine. The room was dedicated to private worship and family ritual, where her family practiced Chinese Shamanism, a secret Taoist folk religion passed down orally.  At Lunar New Year her father would prepare ‘Fu Cheung,’ talismans with sigils on yellow consegrated rice paper. These were burnt and consumed during a tea ceremony and he would then go into a trance called, ‘Juk Tung’,  speaking tongues, he'd perform martial arts through trance meditation, displaying the 'drunken fist' and mimicking mythological characters such as the Monkey King  and 'Lo Si' the grand master. Each member of the family would then take turns to play out these improvised trances and make them their own , this  would carry on through the night, a family’s secret recreational sport.  

Mo has re-created a large scale shrine based on rare archival photos of a small home shrine and  memories of childhood interactions with the shrine, such as  tending to the offerings of flowers, fruit and tea, lighting joss and replenishing the oil lamp that were lite permanently.  She created an installation with video projection & soundscape, working with performers  to create  re-enactments of ‘Juk Tung’,  

Along side this piece is a soundscape of original 'taped' sound recordings of customers  'takeaway orders' over the phone,  set in regional Black Country accents, against the backdrop of kitchen noises.  For this piece Mo has aimed to capture her conflicting feelings of a young person and the vulnerabilities and resistance of taking part in a folk religion set within the confines of a family's home, the ritual and the bizare private practice  witnessed as a child from a diasporaric community. 

Developed in 2022 supported by ACE DYCP grant.

Image; Archival photograph of 'home shrine' in Holly Bush Lane, 1970's. Rare documentation of hand made Fu Sigil banner with shrine objects.