Wanyi Xiang

About

Wanyi𓂃𓋪

Biography:
Wanyi Xiang, born in Hubei Province, China, is a photograph-based practitioner studying at the Photography MA of the Royal College of Art. Her artistic practice commenced with investigating the issues faced by female labourers in China, which led her to focus particularly on their care and affective labour. She is aiming at establishing a visual narrative of female labour engaging in the care of everyday life within the Chinese labour system. At the same time, her narrative approach is photographically dependent, a response to the social issues related to female labourers and carers.

Artist Statement:
At the present stage, my practice focuses on groups of female labourers working in factories and nursing homes. The fundamental concern lies in the gender identity of the individual in a specific context, particularly when those women are confronted with, to some extent, a patriarchal and Taylorism industrial system. Confrontation lives within the women as they shape their own subjectivity while resisting the social forces that seek to shape them. Thus, they are seeking the possibilities of livelihood in a social milieu which has a definite ceiling. The moral and emotional pressures for them are underpinned by the contradiction between supply and demand, for example, for female labour specialising in care, their work is subject to the affective demands from others and the recognition of their affective labour. The power to reconnect with others, and even with myself, is posed by the process of image-making, through which my incipient expression is engaging in the transformation towards a more concrete sense of responsibility. This approach of perceiving and investigating inconspicuous yet critical issues engages me with social participation through the language of photography and impels me to explore the narrative promise of photography language.

Contact：WanyiXiang.o@outlook.com