My current research ‘falling off’ is about the commodification of labour.
I research how populations and resources are forced to migrate and become disconnected from their original lands in the process of global commodification. I use global hair trade as a case study to identify the complex and interwoven power dynamics of commodification, globalization, patriarchies, capitalism, consumerism, and East-West relations.
As a Chinese visual artist living in Europe, I am surrounded by “Made in China” products every day. I choose to work with the wig, a commodity that is both common and specific, personal and industrialized. In the global hair trade, raw materials originate from the human body, and the contributors: hair providers, workers, and customers, are predominately women. However, the entire system is entrenched in male aesthetics, patriarchy, and hierarchy.
Geographically, in the global hair trade, human hair is collected from India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, processed in China, then sold to Europe and the United States. Like most other production industries, it follows the migration of resources and labor from east to west, from the global south to the north, and from underdeveloped to developed regions.
In 2023, I spent a month working with 45 female workers in a factory in Xuchang, China, to better understand the hair trade from this perspective. This city is the world's largest hair production center.
Continuously, I have been researching the historical reasons for China's emergence as a production center for the hair trade during the Chinese ‘hair cutting movement’ of 1903-1927. I want to draw attention to the relative geographical and historic position of the women in the global hair trade. I combine real-life footage with archival material to complete an essay film, which comprises three narrative dimensions of my situation, the situation of my coworkers in the factory and the historical context. In this film I reflect on the gestures of violence in the daily production of industrial products.
I research how populations and resources are forced to migrate and become disconnected from their original lands in the process of global commodification. I use global hair trade as a case study to identify the complex and interwoven power dynamics of commodification, globalization, patriarchies, capitalism, consumerism, and East-West relations.
As a Chinese visual artist living in Europe, I am surrounded by “Made in China” products every day. I choose to work with the wig, a commodity that is both common and specific, personal and industrialized. In the global hair trade, raw materials originate from the human body, and the contributors: hair providers, workers, and customers, are predominately women. However, the entire system is entrenched in male aesthetics, patriarchy, and hierarchy.
Geographically, in the global hair trade, human hair is collected from India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, processed in China, then sold to Europe and the United States. Like most other production industries, it follows the migration of resources and labor from east to west, from the global south to the north, and from underdeveloped to developed regions.
In 2023, I spent a month working with 45 female workers in a factory in Xuchang, China, to better understand the hair trade from this perspective. This city is the world's largest hair production center.
Continuously, I have been researching the historical reasons for China's emergence as a production center for the hair trade during the Chinese ‘hair cutting movement’ of 1903-1927. I want to draw attention to the relative geographical and historic position of the women in the global hair trade. I combine real-life footage with archival material to complete an essay film, which comprises three narrative dimensions of my situation, the situation of my coworkers in the factory and the historical context. In this film I reflect on the gestures of violence in the daily production of industrial products.
falling Off: Part 1 (Where It Ends, Where It Lingers), 2024. Video installation, 200 cm x 80 cm x 60 cm. Material: Trolley, TV screen, Human Hair, Video duration: 13 min.
A screen is installed on the side of a cart with hair mats placed on the shelf.
Close-up of the hair mats.
Close-up of the hair mats.
Screenshot from falling Off: Part 1 (Where It Ends, Where It Lingers). Moss growing with hair in the city. Image taken near Berchem station in Antwerp, Belgium.
falling Off: Part 2 (Work Diary), 2024. Video installation, 100 cm x 20 cm x 40 cm. Materials: Trolley, TV screen, cargo box, synthetic hair. Video duration: 25 min. A screen is placed on a cargo box containing artificial wigs, which is set on a trolley.
Close-up of the synthetic wig.
Screenshot from falling Off: Part 2 (Work Diary).Two persons hands are sewing white artificial wigs under the sewing
machines, and there are more wigs waiting to be sewn on the table. Image taken in Xuchang, China.
falling Off: Part 3 (Hair Harvesting), 2024. Video installation, 104 cm x 30 cm x 70 cm. Material: Trolley, TV screen. Video duration: 10 min. A screen is placed on a cart.
Close-up of the screen.
