A Bedtime Story
documentary media, etc., video
2017 – 2026
2026
concept/statement: I did this project in schools interviewing people about househelp and nannies. I have since developed it fully to investigate the issues of substitute and surrogate mothers in China. the video consisted of random footages, performances and narratives about democracy, statues, etc. It investigates various narratives in the urban landscape through images and texts about mothers and substitute mothers to criticize Israel Palestine wars, conflicts and other political affairs. It originated from a news I saw during the school, OCAD University, doing assignments in min sook lee’s class, of nannies and children who are killed in China. the undercurrent of emotional cruelty and coldness is what these works are about. I also used the frameworks of critical text written by deleuze guttari, donna haraway and bruno Latour to explore various hybridizing narratives between mothers and states. it is about love, debts and romance. etc.
essay: how do mothers become important?
children love their mothers. they cannot live without their loves. that’s the purpose of people doing works and working in factories making produces for children, mothers and fathers in the world. in Korea, people cannot eat food that is nutritious enough. they suffer labour shortage and career burnout. in china, this types of labour issues are often confronted on the factories floors. people can sleep in the workplace for hours as a way to protest, protesting governments and corporations who give them so little pay and demands fealty. this is not how people work and live. people are poor. people are suffering. even xi jin ping agrees as he claims he has elevated poverty or more so eradicated it in 2020 or so in China’s countryside. these have given people numerous ideas about China, communist governments and corrupted officials. they are nothing more than a glimmer of hopes for people who are debted, in debts and owing money. there is no way out. they often turned to women who are mothers, thinking and believing they would help them out, holding their children ransom, hostages and even abducting them so they would get those money people like them desperately need and want. that’s how mothers become important in the world. etc.
Yuling Chen 