Mother, Daughter & Grandmother (2023)
Materials: Wood, Steel Bars, Chains, 3D Printed models, silicone & Jesmonite, Red curtains
Description:
Mothers, Daughters and Grandmothers, (2023) 'builds on the trauma I suffered in my matrilineal family in China's patriarchal society, presenting mother-daughter relationships under matrilineal domination from different perspectives and recreating everyday scenes of my mother and me in an autobiographical form through fragmented objects.' Specifically, Mother, Daughter and Grandmother (2023) focuses more on my relationship with my mother, the furniture, such as tables and chairs, as well as the models of hands metaphorically represents dynamic dominations to the Chinese matriarchal household. Meanwhile, the placement of the female body and domestic objects explores the victimisation and empowerment in the mother-daughter relationship.
Dear, Her (2023)
Materials: videos, 16’58’’
Description:
This is a film about women, mother-daughter relationship based on my own experience in the context of Chinese patriarchal society.The film consists of three parts, presented from the different perspectives of the mother, grandmother and daughter, and is also divided into three chapters, the first two of which are opened by the grandmother's autobiography. Specifically, the first chapter is about women's birth and reproduction, the second discusses the patriarchal society and the family's disciplinary approach to women, and the third focuses on symbiosis and separation in the mother-daughter relationship.
Cradle (2023)
Materials: Wax, Foam, Iron board, Zipper, Chains, black cotton thread, Needles, Nails
In this sculpture, I have tried to reflect and express the trauma and conflict that existed between my mother and me from a personal perspective. I was born into a typically patriarchal Chinese family. The different is that my grandmother was the authoritarian of the family, at the top of the pyramidal family structure, followed by my mother and me. My grandmother demanded that my mother follow the traditional Chinese feminine virtues of caring for the family and handling the household, which led her to inherit the rights granted to me, as she suffered. If I objected to her exceptions, she habitually forced me to obey her with extreme behaviour, such as self-harm, which did cause me nightmares for a long time.
The cradle of childhood and the swing of adolescence should have been symbols of the beauty of childhood, but because of my mother's extreme control and her extreme behaviour led me to believe that my childhood was full of invisible flesh and blood, with faded nails, needles, threads and other objects recalling my formative years from my perspective.
Scar Hungers (2022)
Materials: Paste, barbed wire, aluminum expanded mesh, plaster, acrylic box, pipes, expanding foam, latex liquid rubber
Description:
I took the female body as the model and made some texture of flesh and scars on it. What I want to express is the trauma of the current society for women.
Take the "Tangshan beating incident" in China in June 2022 as an example. However, the Chinese government has not fully dealt with this matter. Just like more gender issues, the government may prefer to avoid talking about it. It is unfair for women living in this society to avoid talking and not punish the perpetrators.
In the Chinese society we are living in, the psychology of women and even sexual minorities is just like this sculpture, full of scars and injuries, like burns, tearing and sticking the flesh.
The Cow, The Sow, The Female (2022)
Description:
These serial work are a reflection on maternal temperament. Since the 1990s, the resurgence of theories in China has led to a revival of old gender stereotypes. Specifically, Neo-Confucianism advocates the celebration and restoration of traditional 'natural femininity' through a few virtuous mothers and wives, and toxic masculinity through 'successful' men with power and wealth. As a result, there are now voices in China calling for natural femininity, which simply means that women are expected to be different from men, for example, to be gentle, to take better care of their families and husbands, to be full of maternal light. This strikes me as an extortion of women, a psychological and physical oppression. For these images I used cows and pigs, which in the Chinese sense are often used to humiliate women. I want you to realise that some of today's seemingly mild language is actually a form of control, no different from slut-shaming.
Size: 50*30cm
Materials: Oil on canvas
Size: 80*60cm
Size: 60*60cm
Size: 30*30cm
Through the Fog of Blood and Sweetness (2022)
Materials: Acrylic sheets, Acrylic Paint, Modeling paste
Description:
This work is about the trauma of desire. People confuse the definition of desire with Lacan's desire=demand-needed. Maybe when you think about desire, the first thing you might think about is lust, and I want to say that lust is a state that you see everywhere in your life. Maybe most people think of desire as something like pleasure, but it's not, desire is a circular movement, and desire is always in a cycle of self-reproduction. So in my opinion, desire is an existence that can make people hurt, but people constantly produce desire, which is what I show the trauma of desire.
Size: 60*60cm each
We are Here,
Do Not Need Anyone's Permission(2022)
Materials: Rice paper, acrylic box, projector, video, pipes
Description:
This work is my reflection on the current situation of Chinese feminism. I think Chinese feminism needs to be broken and rebuilt. According to the analysis of post-modern feminism, Chinese feminism does not have a complete guiding platform, nor does it go out of the so-called Chinese characteristics. Instead, it is dubbed as data feminism, which means that Chinese feminists only make voices on the Internet and do not carry out due demonstrations.
Annihilation(2020)
Materials: videos, 05’02’’
Description:
This project is my guess about the future survival of many women. The burning body appears to be in a state of destruction. However, in the natural state the body it has some reservations, showing a state of half destruction and half integrity. This state may represent the future of today's women--they survive in the gap but still retain a glimmer of survival, perhaps our future is still full of vitality.
In the meanwhile, modern people are very radical. For me, behind the magnificent and radical way of my works is a kind of desolate and desolate existence.
The Tolerant Era Is coming(2019)
Materials: video, 02’32’’
Description:
With the increase in public awareness, a chaotic state consisting of many voices has been shaped. This state is a distortion of simple thinking and a misunderstanding of women's rights and traditional culture. My project mainly aims to show the conflicts and contradictions that I am currently exposed to, and to reflect the current living conditions of women.
Today, most young women in China have been influenced by traditional culture and Chinese feminism. For example, the Chinese traditional culture requires women to return to the family, but extreme Chinese feminism mainly requires women to become elites. Women are caught in an awkward and confused state between the two voices. They currently seem to be independent, but in fact they are fragile and helpless and need to rely on somebody else. They have questions about their state and even their spiritual world.