In essence, this story began with my grandmother and her life. But as I delved deeper into the search for my own identity, etched by the weight of traditional Chinese culture, a hollow, fragmented version of myself emerged. This series of works, created for my BVA graduation exhibition, combines ceramics, metal, and Chinese paper calendars similar to those my grandmother once used. I remember so vividly how, each day, she would tear off a page from the calendar—full of astrology and fortune-telling—a ritual marking the close of one day and the quiet arrival of the next. Yet, for all its daily significance, her life was deeply tethered to the confines of a patriarchal family, where she toiled as a housewife, endlessly devoted to serving the men around her.
In the act of tearing off these calendar pages and layering them onto clay to cast fragments of my own shattered body, I thought I was reconnecting with my grandmother—bridging the physical and spiritual. But as the clay pieces were fired into delicate, paper-thin ceramics, the calendar pages burned away into ash, leaving only the memory of what had been. What I had created were three figures—one toiling in the fields, one seated gracefully as a bride awaiting her groom’s touch, and one snapping a selfie, a young woman of today.
In truth, all three of these figures are versions of me, not just because they were moulded from my own body but because they embody my struggle as a contemporary Chinese woman. These figures are at once past, present, and future—expressions of the tension between tradition and transformation. They represent my search to untangle the scars left by a culture that once defined me and my quiet rebellion as I attempt to embrace new identities, new ways of thinking, and a new understanding of self.
囡 (nān)
Ceramic, metal, traditional Chinese calendar, wood, fabric and magnets. 2022
Eva During 伊娃卓灵 