Ceramic
3.370*2.125 inches *
2020
For many Chinese, the beginning of the year 2020 seems to be longer and heavier than in the past. Since the end of 2019, the new coronavirus appears to be a time bomb buried in Wuhan. With China's large-scale national movement before the new year, this time bomb gradually detonated in various provinces and cities.
Because the relevant personnel did not report the actual severity of the epidemic in a timely and accurate manner at the beginning of the epidemic, many innocent people across the country became infected without the knowledge. The sudden outbreak has led to a shortage of hospital staff and medical equipment. Many people have died at home or in the waiting area of the hospital before they can be checked. However, their deaths could not be included in the death statistics of the outbreak.
Also, many dark sides were exposed during the epidemic. For example, people across the country donated a large number of materials and funds to the Chinese Red Cross. However, this part was not distributed to hospitals fastest and most effectively. At first, many helpless hospitals could only openly ask society for help. Again, then they faced the ironic news that the government publicly stated that there was no shortage of hospital supplies.
At the same time, some posts or reports on “Weibo” that seek the truth, or the content of the voice of questioning are often inexplicably deleted or referred to as "rumors". Everything that happened made me very angry and helpless.
After I fell into a deep sense of helplessness, I thought I needed to present this event as a work of art. I used ceramic, a hard but fragile medium, to express my tangled and complex emotions. Each piece of ceramic will be in the form of a Chinese citizenship ID card, and each piece will have a different wrinkled texture. The reason for using ID cards is that I think everything revolves around the identity of the "Chinese", and nothing represents us better than ID cards. The details on the ID card are all hand-drawn. I think this is more humane and more representative of the individual. The personal information on the identity card is obscured because most of them have no way of knowing their real names, and some of them are "unlisted." The other parts that are erased represent the content of "cannot be known and blocked", and it also means that ordinary people will never know the truth.
After each piece of the identity card is hung on the wall, the LED display above the rolling random numbers represent unknown deaths. At the same time, the red button with "Control" written on the wall will control the change of the number. Every time you click, the random number will drop by one. This represents the fact that each of us may become the "controller" in this outbreak. The bad public opinion influence and inaction of the people will affect this society.
I want to give people a signal through my work. We cannot forget these dead innocent people, and this incident cannot be forgotten. Every hard ID card will look at us like the grave of the undead, warning the world.
