For “Untitled (Portrait of a Siren),” Shanzhai Lyric repurposes anti-theft technologies as a new archival system for “The Incomplete Poem (2015- ),” their ongoing collection of poetry-garments. Visitors are invited to take anti-theft security tags from a heap—stealing the very item that attempts to catch the thief—and pass through a cluster of security panels, thus triggering sirens reprogrammed to emit a haunting and layered sonic landscape.

Inspired by the mythical sirens, whose subversive singing lures sailors away from trade and conquest, the piece asks us to rethink ideas of property and theft—and perhaps to even celebrate the liberatory and redistributive aspirations of those who scoff at notions of ownership.

Created by Shanzhai Lyric in collaboration with Natalie Galpern and Yuhan Shen for “SIRENS (some poetics),” curated by Quinn Latimer at Amant (September 15, 2022–March 5, 2023).

A reading of a watery poem composed from the siren call of found shanzhai lyrics alongside a newly commissioned essay by UK-based feminist shoplifting theorist Silvia Bombardini. "Poetics of Theft" inaugurated Shanzhai Lyric's new publication series charting a typology of thieves throughout history.

A mini-publication assembling cacophonous and suprasensical shanzhai poems gleaned from T-shirts as a form of siren song, created on the occasion of “SIREN (some poetics).”