PARENTS' COVERSATION

        Parents’ conversation is a video installation about the pressure my parents put on me because of the influence of society. When audiences walk into the space, they can see the video is projected on three walls in the dark, enclosed room with the audio, the audio is from my parents, and the video starts from the left side of the wall. They can stand in the middle of the room; the audio comes from both the right and left soundtrack, so people can feel the audio from my parents talking to them and feeling the pressure. 

        When the audiences enter the dark space, they can see the person with gradient colour start walking from the left wall of the room, my parents’ audio begins at the same time, and dialogues in the speech bubbles are all the words that my parents talk to me when we have video chat every week. I choose to play the whole audio instead of only playing the dialogues shown in the animation because I want to restore the chatting with them.  These dialogues show above the person, and I choose the dialogues that relate to this topic. The dialogues become stress (the yellow circle) on the head); in the beginning, the person can absorb the pressure. Still, when she keeps walking, more dialogues appear, she cannot drink any more, and the size of the yellow circle becomes bigger. Hence, the person starts to climb on the floor; finally, she can’t hold on anymore and lie on the ground; some words appear in her brain and explode. Black screen, the yellow line and my mother’s voice shows she repeats, “Everyone can do it, so you also need to do it.” in Chinese, I want to show they are like brainwashing. When the yellow lines fill up the screen, I repeat the topic, change the colors, and edit the audio. Because the space has three projection walls, so when audiences stand in the middle of the room and see the big words in front of them, they can feel the pressure, anxiety and close feeling, and the effects of the video are the same in my mind when my parents talk to me. And I chose to use yellow to represent pressure because yellow in ancient China was a color for royals, and they had the power and right to manage and control people; for me, it’s the same way my parents arranged the future for me.   

      "Everyone does it, so you also need to do it" in the Parents’ conversation is a sentence that my parents talk to me almost every week when we have video chat, so I choose this sentence as the main sentence in this project, it’s different with other dialogues, because other dialogues are all "it" in the topic can represent their expectations; also, it's the society let my parents put the pressure on me, so both of them build a future for me. And the background of this project is involution; it's a sociological concept, especially in the big cities in China. The population and limitation of the number of jobs cause everyone to be tired and stressed; everyone is in the competition and becomes a vicious circle. My parents think involution is a positive word, and they believe only lazy people and people without ambition will think it's a negative word. So, the research I did is about Chinese parents' expectations; the expectations are related to society's pressure. According to Susanne Bregnbaek: "At the same time, parents experience a desire to cultivate strong feelings of attachment, love, and loyalty between themselves and their children. A child must be disciplined enough to be successful within a competitive educational system and to remain filial to his or her parents and able to take care of them in the future"3. Although the book talks about the educational system, it is the same as a society; the educational system is also influenced by society. Also, Confucianism, also known as Ruism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. When we were children, we could always hear a sentence like this: "Child, mom (daddy) once wished is now fulfilled by you." And this sentence comes from the thought of filial piety advocated by Confucius in "The Analects". In Confucius' view, as a child, you must not only support and serve your parents, but more importantly, you must promote your parents' aspirations, take responsibility for society, and do things that are beneficial to society. Although we don’t talk about Confucius in daily life, this system of thought is deep-rooted almost in every Chinese people’s mind. The artist influences me is Tetsuya Ishida, he works show the pressures of modern society, and the figures in his paintings don’t have any emotional, they all have empty eyes, and the society manipulate people, include students, white-collar workers and even patients, and they are objectified by a callous society, people can feel artist’s despair to the society and social pressure in these works. 

      Although Parents’ conversation focuses on my parents’ aspect, it’s my personal experience, and other parents may have different expectations to their children, I want audiences can also feel anxious and resonate, and can think about their parents’ expectations. 

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“父母的谈话”是一个视频装置，讲述了父母因为社会的影响而对我施加的压力。 当观众走进这个空间时，他们可以看到视频和音频一起投影在黑暗的封闭房间的三面墙上，音频来自我的父母，视频从墙壁的左侧开始。 他们可以站在房间中央； 音频来自左右声道，因此人们可以感受到我父母与他们交谈并感受到压力的音频。

 

当观众进入黑暗的空间时，可以看到渐变色的人从房间的左边墙壁开始走来，我父母的音频同时开始，对话泡泡里的对话都是我父母说的话 当我们每周进行视频聊天时对我来说。 我选择播放整个音频而不是只播放动画中显示的对话，因为我想恢复与他们的聊天。 这些对话显示在人的上方，我选择与该主题相关的对话。 对话变成了头上的压力（黄色圆圈）； 一开始，人可以吸收压力。 然而，当她继续走时，出现了更多的对话，她再也喝不下了，黄色圆圈也变大了。 因此，这个人开始在地板上爬； 终于，她坚持不住了，躺在地上； 一些词出现在她的脑海中并爆炸。 黑屏，黄线，妈妈的声音在重复，“大家都可以，所以你也要做。” 用中文，我想表明他们就像洗脑。 当黄色线条填满屏幕时，我重复主题、更改颜色并编辑音频。 因为空间有三面投影墙，所以当观众站在房间中央看到眼前的大字时，会感受到压力、焦虑和亲近感，视频效果和我的一样 介意我父母跟我说话的时候。 而我选择用黄色来代表压力，是因为黄色在中国古代是皇室的颜色，他们有管理和控制人的权力和权利； 对我来说，这就像我父母为我安排未来一样。

 

Parents' conversation中的“人人都做，所以你也要做”是我父母几乎每周视频聊天时都会跟我说的一句话，所以我选择这句话作为这个项目的主语，它是 与其他对话不同，因为其他对话都是话题中的“it”，可以代表他们的期望； 还有，是社会让我爸妈给我压力，所以他们两个都为我打造了一个未来。 而这个项目的背景是内卷； 这是一个社会学概念，尤其是在中国的大城市。 人口和工作数量的限制使每个人都感到疲倦和压力； 每个人都在竞争中，形成恶性循环。 我的父母认为内卷是一个积极的词，他们认为只有懒惰的人和没有野心的人才会认为这是一个消极的词。 所以，我做的研究是关于中国父母的期望； 期望与社会压力有关。 根据 Susanne Bregnbaek 的说法：“与此同时，父母们渴望在他们自己和孩子之间培养强烈的依恋、爱和忠诚感。孩子必须受到足够的管教才能在竞争激烈的教育体系中取得成功并保持孝顺 给他或她的父母，并在未来能够照顾他们”3。 书上虽说教育制度，但同是社会； 教育制度也受到社会的影响。 此外，儒家思想，也称为儒家思想，是一种起源于中国古代的思想和行为体系。 小时候，我们总能听到这样一句话：“孩子，妈妈（爸爸）曾经的愿望现在被你实现了。” 而这句话出自孔子在《论语》中提倡的孝道思想。 在孔子看来，作为孩子，不仅要孝敬父母、侍奉父母，更重要的是要弘扬父母的志向，对社会负起责任，做有益于社会的事。 虽然日常生活中不谈孔子，但这套思想体系几乎深入到每一个中国人的脑海中。 影响我的艺术家是石田哲也，他的作品表现的是现代社会的压力，他画的人物没有任何情绪，都是空洞的眼神，社会操纵着人，包括学生，白领， 即使是病人，也被冷酷的社会客观化了，人们在这些作品中感受到了艺术家对社会的绝望和社会压力。

 

“父母的对话”虽然是我父母方面的，但这是我的亲身经历，其他父母对孩子的期望可能不一样，我希望观众也能有焦虑感和共鸣，能想一想父母的期望。