Women Hold Up Half the Sky

University of California, San Diego, 2019
Manila rope, bamboo sheath, gold leaf, and ink
9' x 3" x 15'

The title alludes to Mao Zedong's public statement on women as the instillation repositions the embodiment of woman, visually suspended by policies and impositions on their politicized bodies.

In a famous public statement, he openly praised the Chinese women by exclaiming they "hold up half the sky." Whereas in a private conversation with United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Zedong offered to send 10 million Chinese women to "let them flood [the U.S.] with disaster."

One side of the bamboo sheath displays image transfers of Chinese women used by American newspaper publications to promote The Page Act of 1875, the first restrictive federal immigration law in the U.S. It specifically targeted Asian women by painting them as lewd and immoral prostitutes as a guise to prevent "orient" families from populating in the U.S. (given that the naturalized birth laws were already in order).

The other side of the sheath boasts gold leaf letterings of the character 婊 (Biǎo), or whore, in reference to the misogynist stereotyping of women on the Chinese social media site, Weebo, also known as Chinese twitter. Netizens typecast women by popular beverages in a derogatory manner. For instance, the "green tea bitch" describes women who appear angelic and innocent, but have an ambitious drive that is frowned upon.

Tangled within the weaves of impossible expectations, the piece examines the preeminent conditions of existence for Chinese women and investigates transgressive aspects of body, erotica, and sexuality.