Object over Body is about my non-linear recovery from emotional abuse. However, to cheer myself up, the piece is programmatic and features the adventures of a despondent flower pot who ruminates on becoming human, grows legs, and learns that it is still powerless to do anything but run. The first movement, “I have no hands,” focuses on the first of these events where the flower pot, fueled solely by confusing and visceral emotions, has yet to grow limbs. The second movement, “growing pains/becoming bone,” is when the flower pot actually begins to develop physical agency. It grows legs and runs around in excitement. In the third movement, “Winded,” emotions catch up to the flower pot and it becomes overwhelmed. 

Premiered by Momenta Quartet at Binghamton University in 2024 and 2025. 

Object over Body: I. I have no hands

Wen Wen Van Der Wende (They/He) is a queer, Chinese-American composer, vocalist, and multimedia artist whose music conveys both visceral turmoil and a love for the natural world. A devotee of unconventional beauty, they balance brightly-colored destruction with a grounded sense of sincerity. Recent projects include “a tired sun” for double choir, the purple-splattered, electroacoustic nightmare “veronica,” and Amy’s Third Most Emotionally-Distressed Roommate, an experimental breakup album. Wen Wen is the founder and co-organizer of an LGBT+ concert series hosted at The Hartt School, University of Hartford. When not composing, they like to analyze popular media, crochet ugly sweaters, and converse with their menagerie of adorable, oddly-named plushies.