Sparking joy and the exhaustion of racism: The psychic processes of racial objectification

This paper examines two examples of performances and projects that speak to enduring categories of racial objectification, including the relationship of racial subjects to things (objects) themselves. The first is the global phenomenon of Marie Kondo, whose bestselling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and associated Netflix series Tidying Up, are the basis of a multi-million dollar industry based on the trademarked KonMari method, which urges householders to discard everything in their possession that does not ‘spark joy’. The second is Benjamin Law’s Torch the Place, an Asian Australian theatre project set in Queensland, Australia. The play tackles the serious issue of hoarding through a humorous perspective and a cast of Asian Australian women. Placing these examples into dialogue, the paper demonstrates how the pressures associated with race and gender expectation are expressed through different relationships to objects. Between these two extremes – the refusal to let go of objects and the compulsion to discard them – emerges the possibility of a trans-Asian dialogue on racial objects and identities across diverse media sites and forms. These are the object lessons for a philosophy of action and solidarity, of what to hold onto and what to discard.