The End of Oranges

11/2023

Video

Shanghai， China

 

The video recorded a conversation and practice with my mother about how to view oranges and their use of them.During the conversation, I tried to guide my mother to find more "life value" for oranges but was eventually brought back to the starting point by my mother. Oranges are born to be eaten as a result. Oranges are not the only fruits, but it can't change the fact that oranges are fruits.

 

The video ostensibly talks about the identity of oranges, but in fact, it is a metaphor for women's identity. At the end of the video, the orange was placed in a flowerpot by the mother and daughter to be used as fertilizer. The flowerpot is both a container that allows the orange to be reborn and a cage that holds the orange forever. This is like the relationship between women and the family that is engraved in traditional Asian women's bodies, the role women have to play in the family, the oranges are food when they are "alive" and fertilizer when they are "dead", a heavy control over women's bodies and labor.