Activity Skin Deep

Skin Deep

Photography, 2018

Skin Deep a series of photograph that explores surface of thing – face- in relation to Asian shame culture through performing self-portraits. In many Asian countries, shame is used as a tool of social control and harmony, as a way to prevent citizens— especially women—from acting in ways that might disrupt the status quo.

Dans la série Skin Deep, I translate the word “shame” to a cultural symbol by masking my face in Chinese silk brocade fabric and create a series of ID-card photographs. The act of masking is a performance of submission to the powerful effects of shame in which I obliterate my own individuality while being completely absorbed into a cultural identity. Skin Deep is an act of drawing back the curtain and pointing to the deeply embedded feelings of shame that can cause women to hold back and stay silent, transforming the performative gestures into experiences and things that are understood to be universal and relatable.