Furen Dai

This body of work comes out of an on-going research project I began in 2017 around the marriage market in China. I have been examining closely the different social phenomenon and industries associated with marriage. Examples include commercial matchmaking agents and companies, blind date TV shows, online dating apps and matchmaking corners in both metropolitan and secondary cities, where unmarried adults’ parents are gathered together to trade their children’s information. During this examination I attempted to study the social cause behind this collective anxiety around marriage, and how it existed across generations in China.

Even though there is a huge gender imbalance in China, the male is still the ‘hot product’ in the marriage market. I’m comparing the male to the art object, and the marriage market to the art market, in asking what makes the art, or men, valuable and desirable.

Once in the history of the United States, the country tries to Americanize American in order to unite the nation. The first thing that came to mind is to get rid of the influence of British English and establish their own language. People think that the way they talk, and the language are reflections of national characteristics. In this project, I chose an alphabetic card, which is often used in teaching children letters. Through those letters, they start to construct their understanding of the world. In ‘A for America’, I selected the words that are repetitively delivered by the current government, in order to address to the world the image of the United States in 2019.

This body of work comes out of an on-going research project I began in 2017 around the marriage market in China. I have been examining closely the different social phenomenon and industries associated with marriage. Examples include commercial matchmaking agents and companies, blind date TV shows, online dating apps and matchmaking corners in both metropolitan and secondary cities, where unmarried adults’ parents are gathered together to trade their children’s information. During this examination I attempted to study the social cause behind this collective anxiety around marriage, and how it existed across generations in China.

Even though there is a huge gender imbalance in China, the male is still the ‘hot product’ in the marriage market. I’m comparing the male to the art object, and the marriage market to the art market, in asking what makes the art, or men, valuable and desirable.

456 Gallery

Beyondchinatown

Sinovision

The China Press

The World Journal

I interviewed 50 immigrants who work or live in Boston area with five questions which are the questions often asked when people apply for visas to come to United States: “Why do you want to come to US? ” “Why do you want to be in the US at this time?” “Describe your job/occupation” “How long do you think you will stay here?”"If you didn't have a visa, where would you be and what would you be doing?"

This project involves giving away mylar reflective balloons that are inscribed with words and phrases that were/are censored on the internet. Each word reflects a certain political or social environment. Participants are invited to take a balloon, bring it to the outside world, and have the words floating in the public space.

Argot Catalogue by Xinyi Ren

Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, 2017; Photo: Melissa Blackall Photography

The Experiential Industry is a video sculptural installation I created in 2017. In the video, I created a website selling people's experience, through membership, users could order custom-made experience on this website, examples are: eat chicken wings, smoke cigarettes, go to gym, etc., users could choose the amount, time and the language, then the website would have someone to fulfill the order by eating specific amount of chicken wings and describe the feeling in the language they choose, and send the video to the user. This video aims to critique on the contemporary ways of living and the influencer culture on youtube.

Installation shot at Tokyo Art Center.

Photo Credit: The 21st Japan Media Art Festival

Installation shot at SpencerLoft Gallery

Argot Catalogue by Xinyi Ren

Boston Globe Review

Green For The Future was site-specific work I created during my Art OMI residency in upstate New York.  Having grown up in a large city in China, I was confronted with an overwhelming experience living with nature and green everywhere during the residency. In this video, I created an imaginary company that exists in 2050 whose mission is selling trees as luxury product. In my project in 2050 there are only 50,000 trees left and in most of the world green has already gone extinct. This company trying to expand its land, and grow more trees with different tree barks and leaves. This company has its own website where people can custom design their own tree by selecting specific size, quantity, and shade of green for the leaves, as well as different patterns for the tree trunks. Sarcasm is a component of the project throughout and especially when the company is providing EB-5 investment visas for those wealthy people who can directly afford to move to United State to enjoy the last land of green on earth. 

There is a town in New Mexico called Truth or Consequences. The town changed its name in 1950s based on a game show. The game show host proposed whichever town changed their name to “Truth or Consequences”, he will come to the town to do a live show. In 2017, I travelled to this town and stayed there for a week. In this small town, most professions only have one person: one florist, one lawyer, one real estate company owner, one cinema owner etc. I interviewed each person with three questions: “What they think the name of their town?” “Tell me a truth” “Tell a consequence related to that truth.”

In a professional meeting where all the participants are discussing if there’s anything that is ineffable through language in this world, the woman translator start drifting away into her own imaginary world and dancing in the landscape.

Furen Dai's video work began with her research on a Secret Women Language called NvShu, which originated and developed as a secret code among women in Hunan Province, China. Through research she discovered that though the language has lost its functionality, women who know the language have been pressured into performing their cultural activities as entertainment for tourists for menial wages. She has presented a language factory in her video and the act of producing secret women language as art object to sell to people who don't have access to the meaning of the language.

Message through Generations is a work that is inspired by the conversation around the content found in an ancient Chinese book called Commandments for Women.  This book is written by a Chinese woman scholar named Ban Zhao in around 100 C.E. The conversation between two generations is presented silently and actively through the daughter first tracing the shadow of the mother’s writing.  This is followed by the daughter reading the writing, then writing on the box with her mother sitting within until it becomes an entirely black box.  The process exemplifying how the elder generation passed the rules for behavior to the younger generation and younger generation might very well have a strong opinion about those rules, either in agreement or disagreement. The black box symbolizes that the women in creating rules are trapped inside and it becomes increasingly hard for women to see the outside world.

500 Buddhas is a performative piece, audience could take one sculpture home and in return, take a picture and sent back to me of where they place the sculpture. Each sculpture has a note with Chinese calligraphy explaining which Buddha the sculpture represents and what skill it has.