My Burial Warriors

My Burial Warriors

Plastalina, wood, acrylic, sand

Why couldn’t I have burial warriors like the great Emperor Xin? He had slaves and underlings to create his army that would battle for him in the afterlife. As a Chinese woman of no command, I would have to make my own. He had lifelike impressions of actual soldiers while my warriors might have been a memory, a passerby on the street, or a creation of my imagination. His warriors lasted centuries. Mine fell apart during their first exhibition (Arms fell off or whole figurines crumbled as exhibitions entered their final days).

I liked the conflicting idea of museum-like installations using animation clay. Installations and the clay were fleeting in nature, much like our words, while museums fought to preserve.

Group Exhibition: Beneath the Silk
Chicago, IL
The exhibit theme contrasted the sexual gender stereotype of asian women with the reality of these women’s perspectives. Alluding to the gender bias in society, My Burial Warriors sought to compare the grandness and endurance of a great male emperor’s burial warriors with that of a meek and silly, modern asian woman’s fleeting burial warriors.

Featured Individual Warriors