Global Markings & Zhongjian Midway – 2009

A series of work titled Global Markings was created for the touring exhibition ZHONGJIAN: MIDWAY. This project focused on the dynamic inter-change between an increasingly commodified global culture and the changing identity of Chinese women. Due to my long-term interest in bodies as a site for the expression of social and cultural change, I decided to use objects associated with body modification such as women’s accessories from traditional and contemporary China. These objects express the co-existence of past and present body modification practices that are relevant within the context of a country experiencing rapid modernisation and exposure to global values and branding, within a very short time. These ceramic objects refer to the compression of time in relation to Chinese female identity.