When French artist Prune Nourry decided to document China's missing daughters, those never born due to gender preferences, she drew inspiration from one of the country's most recognizable symbols: the Terracotta Warriors.
For her installation, "Terracotta Daughters," on display now at the Magda Danysz Gallery in Shanghai, the artist created 108 life-sized sculptures of schoolgirls in the style of the ancient warriors.
"I feel it is important to bring light to a subject that affects us all, especially in the years to come," she said, adding that the work invites people to ponder the issue through a reinterpretation of a familiar symbol.
One Chinese woman, who asked to remain anonymous, was filled with emotion at the sight of the army. She could not control her tears when she saw the schoolgirls lined up, saying that the exhibit resonated with her own past and social conditions as a woman in China.
"Terracotta Daughters" is a continuation of Nourry's previous series, "Holy Daughters," an examination of the gender imbalance in India. The 108 sculptures in the Shanghai exhibit are molded after eight Chinese orphan girls the artist met through an NGO called The Children of Madaifu.
"The warriors are a national pride, but also a powerful symbol I chose as inspiration for my project," she added.
The artist noted the number of single men has been increasing ever since the 1980s, and that "combined, China and India total more than one third of the globe's population, and both encounter a similar gender imbalance."
The male to female ratio at birth has hovered at a high level since fetal ultrasound exams became common in China in the 1980s.
"Technology and research in recent years have allowed us to make tremendous progress in our evolution. But it can also be misused, like ultrasound technology, made to monitor the fetus's health, is used to select the sex," said the artist.
Source: NewsOnJapan
