Jump To:
About the Artwork
Ciba Punch 女拳手打糍粑 is a participatory performance led by the Chinese Artists and Organizers Collective (CAO). Rooted in an ethic of care, the project invites community members to join in the process of transforming steamed sticky rice into ciba (糍粑 – traditional Chinese rice cakes often enjoyed with brown sugar or other toppings) by punching the rice.
In bringing the making of ciba into public space, the artists aim to honor and reframe the traditionally feminized labor of cooking, while highlighting food as a living archive for community connection, cultural exchange, and movement building. Participants are invited to channel emotions such as rage, grief, and love into the shared labor of food-making.
During the performance, “Spiritual Figures” will move through the space, offering quiet guidance through humming and breathwork, embodying the presence of queer/feminist ancestors and future selves.
Audience Participation
All are welcome to participate in the Ciba Punch. Sanitation gloves will be provided; however, the food produced during the performance will not be prepared under regulated food safety conditions. Consumption of the rice cakes will be at the participants' own risk.
Event Details
Date: Sunday, Sept. 28
Time: 3-5 p.m.
Location: Dorothea Dix Park (grassy field next to Chapel) 1030 Richardson Drive Raleigh, NC 27603
While free to attend, space is limited. Registration is required.
About the Artists
CAO Collective 离离草
hú-tu (Laura 嘟嘟 & huiyin zhou) is an artist duo with backgrounds in social practice and anthropology, working across moving image, photography, performance, and collaborative writing. Dedicated to multidisciplinary art and transnational organizing, huiyin and Laura co-founded and co-direct the Chinese Artists and Organizers (CAO) Collective 离离草.
CAO Collective creates art to empower relational community healing. Their works investigate systems of discipline, control, censorship, and capitalist extraction and reimagine memory/memorials, rituals, intimacy, and queer/feminist kinship to (re)build sustainable community infrastructures.
caocollective.com | Instagram: @caocollective
Julia Santoli
Julia Santoli is a Vietnamese-American multi-disciplinary artist, musician, composer, and music organizer. Santoli creates immersive and precarious environments with voice, feedback, electronics, and installation. Julia has completed residencies at spaces such as Issue Project Room and Pioneer Works, and was an Asian Cultural Council fellow to Japan in 2019. In 2024, Julia was a peer-mentor in Olha Bekenshtein’s Time-Based program, supporting relationships between U.S. and Ukraine-based artists. As a sound designer, Julia has worked with artists and choreographers such as Zavé Martohardjono and Amalia Suryani. She is a member of Feedback Ensemble (led by Luke Stewart and Leila Bordreuil), the duo Bodyweather, and is a frequent collaborator of CAO Collective. She is currently pursuing research on collaboration within SE Asian diasporic music initiatives as a doctoral student at The Graduate Center, CUNY.
juliasantoli.net | Instagram: @ilotnasailuj
Clothing Design by Qile Sun.
SEEK Raleigh
SEEK Raleigh is an experimental public art program by Raleigh Arts that engages the community through public art in City of Raleigh Parks, greenways, and/or community spaces. The program provides an opportunity for artists to introduce the public to new, unusual, and thought-provoking experiences through temporary public art.
Learn more and apply to the SEEK Raleigh artist call
About Raleigh Arts
Raleigh Arts, a part of the City of Raleigh’s Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources Department, fosters and promotes the arts in Raleigh by administering the programs of the Raleigh Arts Commission and the Public Art and Design Board and supporting the Pullen and Sertoma Arts Centers.