The video is able to be viewed at: https://youtu.be/eL9yDzCeLIo
This series of artworks explores the standard and judges about beauty and confidence under the topic of “mask.” For me, mask is used to cover things that one does not want to show, but the uses of mask in artworks vary in many ways. The symbol of mask in my artwork is not only “covering” but also “revealing.” This series of works mainly consists of three parts: the mask (including the cage, the blindfold, the dress, and the gloves), photo series and the short video. The mask is mainly indicated by the cage and the blindfold which are entangled with flowers, leaves and the vines. The flowers which are there to represent the inner beauty are growing out of the cage and spreading on the person’s face and back. The cage and the blindfold cover her head and eyes. This installation intends to show that the person’s thoughts are trapped by others’ judgements. Her eyes are covered so that she can’t see her own beauty but can only hear those unfriendly judgements. The dress and gloves with feathers are used to create the image of a bird and its wings which corresponds to the bird cage on her head.
In the video, the girl was normally walking on one of the busiest streets in Shanghai. She felt bored and frustrated because of her plainness and judgements of her appearance. She suddenly lost in one of her thoughts that she became a bird but with a cage on her head. She was nervous at first but eventually undertook those glances and comments and learned to reconcile with herself. She was not tethered anymore and disappeared in sunlight.
The most interesting tidbits when shooting this video are the two following ones. When we were shooting on the busy street, people around us were staring at us and even taking photos of us. It turned out that we were “evicted” by one of the guards saying that we couldn’t cause that many onlookers. I intentionally chose this place because I wanted to capture how people reacted to the designed outfit, but I didn’t expect that we would be “judged” by the guard. To some extent, this artwork also contains some performance art elements. Even though my model was designed to perform, after shooting I interviewed her, and she commented that she could feel how heavy the cage was and how difficult to walk wearing the blindfold. After removing those obstacles, she felt relieved and free. There must be some connection between the real-life situation and the theme of this performance, and I thought this would be what I intended to explore at the beginning of planning this artwork.
Director, Photographer, Apparel Designer, Script Writer: Jacquelyn Zhang
Cast: Alice Fan