M Gallery, CICA Museum
September 7-11, 2022
2022.09.07-11
19 WEEKS 5 DAYS
Pearl
The video performance was recorded when I was 19 weeks pregnant. Pregnancy was described as a happy and beautiful experience for a long time. There is even a political-correctness in the Chinese encouraging-fertility-context. However, I have found fertility to be cruel in my personal experience: it inhibits many functions of the mother’s body for the sole purpose of reproducing offspring. Throughout my performance, I was closing my eyes and touching the surroundings with my hands, it represents the lack of security throughout my pregnancy. I cut through the muslin at the end of the performance and burrowed out, symbolizing that delivering a baby, not only for the mother, is a big challenge, but also for the baby. Both must break the existing status they have been used to.
My performance conveys a real sense of being a mother: Not every woman can transition smoothly and peacefully to their new identity, even though she is full of anticipation at the start. Similarly to the pearl on my hands in the video, it comes from a mussel that endures and accepts pain from foreign objects.
