Realms
Their Childhood.mp3, 2023
Sound, installation
100 x 150 cm
This work explores the inheritance of generational trauma through oral narration. The artist plays the role of an interviewer in this pseudo documentary style piece, and asks her parents questions about their childhoods, which were strife with hardship as they grew up in a hostile, totalitarian regime under Mao Zedong. Navigating familial bonds, the artist attempts to learn more about her parents' untold sufferings under the guise of everyday conversations. She also builds the soundscape with recreations of certain sound signals that were prevalent during the Maoist era, such as Communist propaganda songs and readings from the Mao manifesto.
Zheng Jialei (b.2001, Singapore) is a multidisciplinary art practitioner investigating the concerns of diaspora and the fragmentation of cultural identity. Born to immigrant parents, her sense of displacement inspires her to look at loss and trauma. Zheng hopes to reconcile with her roots in an age of urban amnesia. Her current practice revolves around investigating familial bonds and the postmemory. She has exhibited at Starch, as part of Walk Walk Don’t Run 2023. Outside of her practice, Jialei is a fashion designer and stylist.
