‘I fucking want to jump to the age of 30 and get married and then get divorced. Translated by WeChat’
Perfect Pearl is a poetic multimedia project about chasing love and the friction between dream and hard reality.
The main subject is about ‘the concept of love’ seen from a female perspective. What we desire or what we think we should desire. The story touches on existential solitude, the make-ability of life and fleeting online personalities; how to emancipate and to find our own identity amidst the (lonely) crowd. Rather than highlighting contradictions between Western and Eastern culture, I was looking for the universal. To find common ground in the meaning of love and intimacy among young people. The recognizable human experience of uncertainty and change as these young people make choices on the road to adulthood.
I started the project Perfect Pearl in 2018 during a Five months Artist in Residence period at C.E.A.C in China. I came in contact with female students through Xiamen University. We talked about their loneliness, desires and doubts about relationships. Marrying or not marrying. My friendships resulted in a collaboration where I interweave my own poetic observations with the thoughts and feelings of my young Chinese friends. Pursuing your ‘perfect future dream’ feels like a dangerous game. Won't you always be disappointed if you keep chasing the ‘perfect picture’?
WeChat is a popular messaging app in China; a combination of Twitter and Facebook called ‘Moments' In the book PERFECT PEARL I have collected personal texts that I found on 'Moments' or that they sent me directly.
‘So he’s gone. Then I realized that when I was a kid. Mom was not around so much.
I never learned to emotionally really be close to people, to tell them I need them, for a hug. Translated by WeChat’
Film installation, photography and an artist book. See films under film section.
Articles about Perfect Pearl:
Artslife Italia
https://cphmag.com/perfect-pearl/
On view at:
Caroline O’Breen, Amsterdam. February 18-April 8 2023
BIG ART, Amsterdam. November 4-6 2022
Arles Nuit de L’Année: July 9 2022
Rolling Snowball #15 Iceland July 09- August 09 2022
Portraits Hellerau: April 7- June 12 2022 at the museum Technical Collections in Dresden.
Geurnsey Photography Festival Opening Night
Project made possible by Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Dutch Film Fund and Dutch Cultural Embassy in Guangzhou.
Book made possible by Tijlfonds (Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds), Stichting Stokroos and Mondriaan Corona Fonds.
Many thanks to curator Hedy van Erp for support and picture editing.