Too Many Irons in the Fire

^{[Too Many Irons in the Fire]}

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^︎^{ink on fabric, cotton stuffing, thread, iron board}

My mother, like many other asian women born in the 50s was expected to set her family as the first priority as a fulfilment of expected gender and social roles. Apart from the day job, there were always endless household works await the wife, the mother. "Ironing" had always been regarded as one of the many domestic/ family duties belonging to her, after giving birth to my younger sister, the amount of houseworks increased, parents decided to seek assistance from domestic helpers whom are also women and in similar age group as my mother, or sometimes older.

In “Too Many Irons in the Fire”, you see no wife/mother/helper, but only fragmented women bodies photographs printed on fabrics, made into a A-Z flashcard children book-blanket lying on an iron board. I had this urge to put together this concept of ironing, which symbolises the diligent hardworking women, alongside with something that might considered as obscene or inappropriate -- images of naked female bodies . These images were extracted from vintage local pornographic magazines published in the early 90s, intentionally cropped in a way to highlight the beauty of human forms (without heads). For each picture I have paired up with one different word, which somehow is asking for ambiguity, leaning towards to negative connotations when associated with the feminized body.

^{(above work previously shown at Karin Weber Gallery, HK)}

A: Animal

B: Betrayal

C: Curse

D: Debauchery

E: Excess

F: Fat

G: Greed

H: Homicidal

I: Incest

J: Jealousy

K: Kitchen

L: Low

M: Monster

N: Naive

O: Obscene

P: Punishment

Q: Quantity

R: Reproduction

S: Sinner

T: Trouble

U: Unclean

V: Victim

W: Weak

X: Xenophobic

Y: Yield

Z: Zombie

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[Too Many Irons in the Fire]

^{[Too Many Irons in the Fire]}