In the early 2000s, Charmaine Poh appeared as a child actress in the series "We Are REM," 2002-04, where she played a young detective. The success of this murder mystery series made her a star, but also brought traumatic experiences. Thrust into the spotlight at the age of twelve, she experienced puberty under public scrutiny. Images of her circulated online, attracting many, often sexualized, comments, mostly from men who judged her developing body.
In her video work, "GOOD MORNING YOUNG BODY" (2021-23), Poh uses archival video footage to create a deepfake avatar of her twelve-year-old self. This avatar reflects on the experiences Poh went through as a child, experiences she could not articulate at the time. Reprising her role as the series character E-Ching, she returns to confront the online abuse she suffered and to explore the male gaze that both continues to influence, and terrorize, millions of girls and women. In the video, which mimics the format of a broadcast news program, Poh’s avatar delivers a presentation. Yet glitches repeatedly interrupt it: the avatar flickers, and her body and voice become distorted. A glitch is a malfunction in a technical system that can cause graphic errors or strange behavior in, for example, video games. At the end of the video, a ray of sunlight enters the virtual studio, and Poh’s voice quotes a passage from Glitch Feminism from 2020 by Legacy Russell.
This manifesto explores avatars, and the redefinition of origin, gender, and sexuality on the Internet, focusing on the space between real and digital bodies as a site of new freedoms. Here, the glitch is not experienced as a flaw, but a possibility for liberation.
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In the early 2000s, Charmaine Poh appeared as a child actress in the series "We Are REM," 2002-04, where she played a young detective. The success of this murder mystery series made her a star, but also brought traumatic experiences. Thrust into the spotlight at the age of twelve, she experienced puberty under public scrutiny. Images of her circulated online, attracting many, often sexualized, comments, mostly from men who judged her developing body.
In her video work, "GOOD MORNING YOUNG BODY" (2021-23), Poh uses archival video footage to create a deepfake avatar of her twelve-year-old self. This avatar reflects on the experiences Poh went through as a child, experiences she could not articulate at the time. Reprising her role as the series character E-Ching, she returns to confront the online abuse she suffered and to explore the male gaze that both continues to influence, and terrorize, millions of girls and women. In the video, which mimics the format of a broadcast news program, Poh’s avatar delivers a presentation. Yet glitches repeatedly interrupt it: the avatar flickers, and her body and voice become distorted. A glitch is a malfunction in a technical system that can cause graphic errors or strange behavior in, for example, video games. At the end of the video, a ray of sunlight enters the virtual studio, and Poh’s voice quotes a passage from Glitch Feminism from 2020 by Legacy Russell.
This manifesto explores avatars, and the redefinition of origin, gender, and sexuality on the Internet, focusing on the space between real and digital bodies as a site of new freedoms. Here, the glitch is not experienced as a flaw, but a possibility for liberation.
Charmaine Poh, GOOD MORNING YOUNG BODY, 2021–23
Digital video, deepfake
6’23’’
© Charmaine Poh
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Introduction of the exhibition
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public solitude, 2022
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Majie, 2016
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The Moon is Wet, 2025
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What’s softest in the world rushes and runs over what’s hardest in the world, 2024
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