"A Distance That Keeps Soup Warm"
There exists a commonly held ideal in China which states that the upcoming coming of age and leaving the family home, children should always ensure that they remain close to the family home. Maintaining a distance which allows them to return home before the soup begins to cool.
This body of work continues an ongoing interest in working with family and the domestic space. Working so closely with family members over an extended period of time developed into an almost collaborative, ever expanding, body of work with her youngest brother. A body of work which addresses the concepts of narrative identity through the life and surroundings of a young boy.
French theologist, Paul Ricoeur, theorised the idea of narrative identity. This concept suggests that the identification of a personal story, our narrative identity, is integral to the substantiation of selfhood. When meeting someone for the first time, we exchange stories, communicating our existence, our identity through past events and possible futures. Understanding the lives of others then allows us to gain a better understanding of self as we compare and contrast, noting similarities and differences. It is these similarities and differences which provide us with a sense of self, cementing our position within particular societies and cultures.
The prolonged intimate documentation of this young boy establishes a narrative identity, a narrative which is unfamiliar, yet universal as it, overtime, provides an observation of childhood to adolescence. This poignant progression evokes the viewers personal nostalgia and memories, addressing the progression of time and loss of childhood innocence, as well as the ultimate temporality of our own stories.
There exists a commonly held ideal in China which states that the upcoming coming of age and leaving the family home, children should always ensure that they remain close to the family home. Maintaining a distance which allows them to return home before the soup begins to cool.
This body of work continues an ongoing interest in working with family and the domestic space. Working so closely with family members over an extended period of time developed into an almost collaborative, ever expanding, body of work with her youngest brother. A body of work which addresses the concepts of narrative identity through the life and surroundings of a young boy.
French theologist, Paul Ricoeur, theorised the idea of narrative identity. This concept suggests that the identification of a personal story, our narrative identity, is integral to the substantiation of selfhood. When meeting someone for the first time, we exchange stories, communicating our existence, our identity through past events and possible futures. Understanding the lives of others then allows us to gain a better understanding of self as we compare and contrast, noting similarities and differences. It is these similarities and differences which provide us with a sense of self, cementing our position within particular societies and cultures.
The prolonged intimate documentation of this young boy establishes a narrative identity, a narrative which is unfamiliar, yet universal as it, overtime, provides an observation of childhood to adolescence. This poignant progression evokes the viewers personal nostalgia and memories, addressing the progression of time and loss of childhood innocence, as well as the ultimate temporality of our own stories.
