Beauvoir said in The Second Sex
The tragedy of a woman lies in the conflict between the two:
The establishment of the self-subject
The requirements of the external non-subject situation
So she doesn't marry or have children
But is gender issue only related to gender?
Here is the black box
A museum that houses all the extraordinary spiritual worlds of the universe
A dream showroom exhibiting countless horrific wonders
Interview with Cai Yaling (Interviewer: Black Box)
Cai Yaling's real change in creation began with her fertility. Modern philosophy holds that man is the existence of the autonomy of the whole, while women are often pushed and pushed in childbirth until they are solidified by the other, and the autonomy is thus annihilated and reduced to a non-essential situation. In Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxième Sexe, it is pointed out: "The tragedy of the woman is the conflict between the two: the basic requirement of always establishing the self as the essence and the requirement of constituting her as a non-essential situation. ”
This conflict is particularly evident in Cai's art, where the dramatic change in identity foreshadows tension in the value system. Cai Yaling is one of the few contemporary Chinese female artists who has a strong impact and manifestation of gender consciousness. This awakening of gender consciousness runs through her entire creative experience, from the germination of a traditional record of women's autonomy to the contemplation of the entire society and the times.
Cai Yaling
It is clear that the issue of women is not just a gender issue, and in the Tower of Babel of power and capital, everyone is deeply enslaved by its system as a whole. Cai Yaling starts this conflict as a gender issue, unveiling a dark and sensitive scene about our time. New challenges to gender politics, power relations, and sexual awareness are on the rise around the world, and China is making its own waves in this wave. As one of the contemporary artists representing feminism, Cai Yaling has opened a new picture for us.
Fertility is the turning point of Cai Yaling, and the two-way change of pain it brings, on the one hand, is the awakening of gender consciousness, on the other hand, it brings more vitality and thickness. A great source of energy was manifested in women's lives, and through Cai Yaling's art, it was brought to the public, which bridged the separatism of modern philosophy on gender, and also renewed the establishment of the new autonomy of women's independent ontology in the question of fertility, as the Gospel of John says: "When a woman gives birth, she is sad, because when she gives birth, she no longer remembers the pain, because she rejoices that there is a person in the world." ”
"August 21, 2012" Hair, Indeed Good Cloth, 60x60cm, 2014
Black Box: Can you recall when you first realized about gender issues? What events triggered your thinking about gender identity?
Cai Yaling: I grew up in a very equal family, my parents never had any prejudice and doubt about my gender, but when I had my first child, I found that gender issues became more sensitive than ever. After childbirth, I found that women not only have to have their own careers, but more importantly take on most of the responsibilities of a family, whether it is childbirth, breastfeeding and feeding, which take up most of their time and work.
From this time on, I began to feel that I was no longer an independent individual, and I had a very strong connection with my children, parents, and husband. All my actions would tie down changes in the entire family environment, making me have to think holistically about every decision I made, rather than just thinking about myself, so, since giving birth, I realized that I was a woman, not a person.
"Mama" light bulb, stainless steel, 190x80x9cm, 2016
Black Box: For you, the multiple identities of women: daughter, wife, daughter-in-law, mother, what do they mean?
Cai Yaling: These identities have largely become a shackle that binds me. When I perform the duties of a mother, I need to spend time with my children and help with my homework; when I exist as a wife, I need to be a so-called new wife to clean up the house and cook; when I am a daughter, I can still coddle in front of my own mother and do whatever I want. As I had more characters, my first thought was no longer my own needs, but their needs. These characters give me shackles, but they also give me a lot of creative inspiration, because my creations always revolve around my family and feelings. As I became more and more numerous, I wanted to be the most perfect role model in every role on the one hand, and at the same time I wanted to be myself more than ever.
"1987 Me" My Black Hair, True Good Cloth, 100x100x10cm, 2016
Black box: In your work, hair is often used as material. For example, "August 21, 2012", "Pop Point", "1987 Me", "1987 Mom", what does hair mean to you?
Cai Yaling: Your body is actually the best material. When I lay in bed after giving birth, hair was the most natural material I could touch every day and belonged to me, so I used it to express it. When I can't create with solid, permanent materials, the hair that falls out every day becomes a symbol of me. When I picked up a hair and sewed it into the cloth, that moment freed me from the character's bondage to me and gradually calmed down, just as the body is in one space, but the mind enters another. Whether it's my hair, my mother's hair, or every ordinary woman's hair that I've collected later, they represent the strength and emotion that carries in the genes of their owners. That was the beginning of my re-emergence as an artist.
"Time of 408 Columns of Incense" White Cotton, Incense, 120cmx120cm (Variable)
Black Box: 408 Columns of incense burned white cotton, the pain of childbirth, is art a cure for you?
Cai Yaling: I was not prepared when I had my first child, I don't know how intense the pain can be, when I was pregnant with my second child, I wanted to record this unforgettable pain, because this pain of childbirth is a sublimation for women. The whole person becomes more resilient, becoming a very hard and soft material that can resist everything. All the suffering in the world is nothing in the face of procreation, and every mother is very great. My original intention in doing art is to record my feelings at each stage through the form of art, although it is like an autobiography, but I think that what is recorded is also an important node in the life of each woman, and it is also the expression of the feelings of our generation of women in the current society, so I think it is very meaningful to choose this way. The 408 columns burned very long, representing the dozen hours I gave birth to my second child. I hope to record in this way of patience and restraint, revealing the huge energy behind it.
LEAVE ME ALONE crystal bead, stainless steel wire, 200x90cm, 2019
Black Box: In many of your works, you show the oppressive and oppressive power of society against women, how do you put these issues in the thinking of your creations?
Cai Yaling: Among the female friends around me, I found that many encounters and difficulties are actually the same. In leave ME ALONE's work, it comes from a female friend in the United States, and she has many people around her to instruct her on what she should and should not do, although some of them are well-intentioned, but she wants these voices to stay away from her and not interfere with any of her decisions and thoughts, so I spelled this line out with a red bead chain. Later, I did "BITCHES", which also came from another friend, and I believe that every girl will encounter something that wants to swear, it is not only a dirty word, but also a brave correction and resistance of women to some bad things in society. Now more and more girls choose to stand up and tell their own experiences with their faces, she is not to blame a person, but to accuse a social phenomenon, only through the brave expression of individuals, can the group and society pay attention to this problem.
I've started to focus on more peripheral issues and social events, and recently I've been studying many criminal cases within families, and I'm thinking about what a woman has gone through to choose to kill the people around her. I used a Shanxi face sculpture, in collaboration with another artist, to make a variety of female bodies, and finally steamed it out, and used this face sculpture to make a work called "Your Mother". After steaming, the dough swells, creases and burns yellow, like every mother who has given birth. This is the change of the female body, stacked piece by piece to form a hill-like shape, the face sculpture is edible, and it also symbolizes the unfair treatment of the role of motherhood in society as a whole.
"Your Mom" Flour, Yeast, Preservatives, Size Variable, 2021
Black Box: How do you think about topics like feminism or feminism?
Cai Yaling: My doctoral dissertation was feminism. Domestic feminist or feminist research is still in a very early stage, and there is still a long way to go. Many women in the past would reject or resist others who say that they are female artists, but for our generation, the title is no longer so important, it is no longer limited to artists whose gender is female, using female materials such as the body or weaving, but the scope has become larger. The popularization of theory and the attention paid to feminism in different aspects may really come out of a kind of Feminism unique to China that is different from the West in the future. All I can do is record the process of slowly discovering myself from a traditional woman at my own frequency, and record my own feminist path. If many artists can start from this perspective, a new wave will form.
Am I a good person? Crystal beads, stainless steel wire, 130x220cm, 2020
Black Box: What do you think of the Andy Warhol shooting, where the two factions clash badly, some people think the murderer is extreme feminist, and some people think that the murderer is a feminist hero.
Cai Yaling: I think any movement in history is similar. If the protagonist in the case and the doctrine she represents are replaced by events such as the black "Black Lives Matter", it is the same. Maybe because she was a girl at the time and then shot Andy Warhol, it caused a lot of social news and attracted a lot of attention, but it was a very personal act. While it may represent the thinking of some people, we can see that it has a more positive side, that is, it has attracted attention to this matter, and at the same time attracted attention to this group, and it has also caused discussion about whether such extreme feminism is justified or too extreme. I think the hot spot is more important than the thing itself. People discuss it, treat it as an important phenomenon, and discuss the meaning behind it. There are many similar events at present, whether it is female extremism or male extremism, it is actually a personal choice and behavior, and more importantly, we should look at the social effects and social thinking behind it.
BITCHES crystal bead, stainless steel wire, 200x240cm, 2020
Black Box: If future humans are genderless, such as outsourcing women's pregnancy and childbearing or even childcare entirely to artificial intelligence, or becoming hermaphrodites between humans, or no longer having sexual relations, will human suffering be solved? Or is it over on gender issues?
Cai Yaling: This reminds me of the story of a male star in Call Me By Fire who works as a housewife and a man who feeds his children. This matter has aroused heated discussion because of the change of identity, in fact, for every mother, the first three years after giving birth to the child are spent in this way, which reflects everyone's selective neglect of the mother from the side. If women stop having children and turn to machines to give birth, I think there are both good and bad possibilities. First of all, the good side is to further liberate women, we only need to accompany the children with our husbands on an equal footing, and the bad side is precisely the process of her losing her children. I think the process, though painful, is very memorable, and its importance is not to say that every woman has to have a child, but that the physical changes that this fertility brings will eventually lead to a spiritual change, a rebirth.
After I gave birth to my own child, I got rid of adolescence, no longer staying at that stage, but to explore the meaning of the next step in life, and your past troubles and sorrows are not a thing after this. If a woman makes the choice of procreation, this is an important sign that distinguishes her from men. As an artist, the worlds she may create will make her work richer and more complex due to physical and mental changes. Although you will enjoy the pain and suffering of others in the decades of life that you have accompanied your child, or the love and worry for your child for life, it will also bring you more creative materials and unexpected changes.
Red Sea crystal beads, stainless steel wire, 100cmx70cmx25cm (size variable), 2021
Black Box: Does human suffering and shackles come from the person himself, or is it related to gender? Or is the issue of gender just an extension of the sinful nature of the human heart?
Cai Yaling: I think it's a kind of progress to discuss gender issues. Genders of men and women are different, and the attention and presentation are also different. The first is the problem of people, and when the problem of people is no longer a confusing primary problem, we begin to explore the issue of gender. Gender issues have become an important issue at present, why is gender issues so hot now? That's because everyone's vision and thinking have improved, and they realize that it is a problem. People didn't think it was a problem before, so when we go on to talk about gender issues, it's actually a kind of progress. Today's women can stand up generously, which is a sign that our society is moving in a better direction.
（End）
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The silver chain is broken
The pot of gold cracked
The bottle was damaged by the spring
The water wheel was broken at the wellhead
The dust still returns to the ground
The spirit remains to the Spirit-giver
The themes here are: psychoanalysis, dream studies, and anthropology
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