August 21, 2012
Hair, dacron cloth
60 × 60 × 3 cm
2014
The year 2012 was a very important year in my life. As I entered motherhood, I experienced great changes both physically and mentally. I wanted to record these changes with my works. So I created August 21, 2012, which took me two years spanning my pregnancy and more than a year after childbirth. After giving birth, I cut off my long hair that symbolized new life and sewed it into a spiral on a white dacron cloth. The round frame indicates the pregnant belly, which I hope can bring a sense of life. Dacron cloth was chosen because, to my childhood recollection, my mother always embroidered some patterns on dacron cloths and hung them on tables and doors. These works filled my childhood.
The act of sewing day after day felt more like a religious ritual than creating an artwork. It seemed as if the time spent on sewing was the actual artwork and the final product was just a record of all the sewing work. Creating this artwork has brought me peace and pleasure. Thank you, August 21, 2012.
August 21, 2012
Hair, dacron cloth
60 × 60 × 3 cm
2014
The year 2012 was a very important year in my life. As I entered motherhood, I experienced great changes both physically and mentally. I wanted to record these changes with my works. So I created August 21, 2012, which took me two years spanning my pregnancy and more than a year after childbirth. After giving birth, I cut off my long hair that symbolized new life and sewed it into a spiral on a white dacron cloth. The round frame indicates the pregnant belly, which I hope can bring a sense of life. Dacron cloth was chosen because, to my childhood recollection, my mother always embroidered some patterns on dacron cloths and hung them on tables and doors. These works filled my childhood.
The act of sewing day after day felt more like a religious ritual than creating an artwork. It seemed as if the time spent on sewing was the actual artwork and the final product was just a record of all the sewing work. Creating this artwork has brought me peace and pleasure. Thank you, August 21, 2012.
Polka Dot-White
Black dacron cloth, white hair of artist’s mother
60 × 60 × 3 cm
2014
Polka Dot-Black
White dacron cloth, black hair of artist
60 × 60 × 3 cm
2014
My mother and I co-created these two pieces, Polka Dot-White and Polka Dot-Black. My mother has a habit of pulling out white hairs as her way of fighting against aging, which makes me feel sad. These white hairs are a reminder to me of how much has changed with the passage of time. I sewed these white hairs, hundreds of them, onto a black cloth to make a polka dot pattern. As I sewed, I kept reminding myself that the glistening white hairs represented how much my mother had aged.
Likewise, my mother made another polka dot piece by sewing my black stray strands of hair on a white cloth in her own folkish way. But it conveys a totally different impression. I wonder what she was feeling when she was making it.
The idea of polka dots came from my mother’s fashionable pink shirt with black polka dots. She bought it in Shanghai when I was a child. I was fascinated by it, looking forward to the day when I was grown up enough to wear that shirt. It was practically a milestone moment marking my transition to adulthood. These two artworks may look like two ordinary pieces of cloth in the distance, but I hope the audience can appreciate the emotional bond between the two generations as they look closer.
Polka Dot-White
Black dacron cloth, white hair of artist’s mother
60 × 60 × 3 cm
2014
Polka Dot-Black
White dacron cloth, black hair of artist
60 × 60 × 3 cm
2014
My mother and I co-created these two pieces, Polka Dot-White and Polka Dot-Black. My mother has a habit of pulling out white hairs as her way of fighting against aging, which makes me feel sad. These white hairs are a reminder to me of how much has changed with the passage of time. I sewed these white hairs, hundreds of them, onto a black cloth to make a polka dot pattern. As I sewed, I kept reminding myself that the glistening white hairs represented how much my mother had aged.
Likewise, my mother made another polka dot piece by sewing my black stray strands of hair on a white cloth in her own folkish way. But it conveys a totally different impression. I wonder what she was feeling when she was making it.
The idea of polka dots came from my mother’s fashionable pink shirt with black polka dots. She bought it in Shanghai when I was a child. I was fascinated by it, looking forward to the day when I was grown up enough to wear that shirt. It was practically a milestone moment marking my transition to adulthood. These two artworks may look like two ordinary pieces of cloth in the distance, but I hope the audience can appreciate the emotional bond between the two generations as they look closer.
