慢性疼痛
Chronic Pain
Video, 04:25 min, 1080p, 2024
The feminist movement in East Asia is very much at odds with the pace of the feminist movement in the West, and my work expresses a deep feeling and understanding of the plight of women in East Asia. As I moved away from my family of origin, my relationship with the family changed dramatically. Due to the varying levels of absence of the father's role in the family, a daughter's change in the process of detaching from my family is mainly reflected in the change in my relationship with the female elders in the family. Through my own personal experience, I explore the fluidity of female identity in the traditional Chinese family and female inheritance under the bloodline.
This is a combination of performance and video art about physical pain. The pain I saw in my female elders when I was growing up led me to combine my own herniated disc problem with a performance of chronic pain in the bodies of my grandma, my mother and myself as prototypes. I explore issues about women's pain being ignored, and women's pain not being trusted and discriminated against. I explore how three generations of women in my family have dealt with chronic pain, how they deal with household chores in the face of pain, the dogma of the male partner, and the stoicism of pain as if it were an addiction.In the work, I use white tumour-like decorations bound to the performers' bodies to symbolise the pain that engulfs the body. The performers carry these tumours with them as they go about their daily chores, moving between private indoor spaces, and public outdoor areas. The red elements, and the bluish environment attempt to create the mental world of a chronic pain sufferer.