When Sun Chang (1994) left Wuhan (CN) to come to the Netherlands, she decided to dedicate her artistic practice to the search for connections. As a community-based, socially committed artist she organizes dinners to bring people together. Originally, this was Sun Chang’s way of looking for people to forge relationships with: “How can I create a new home, create a new family?” At the same time, this process led to connections and structures that would later serve as the point of departure for new discussions.
The idea for to M•Others (2020-ongoing) arose during the pandemic when she concluded that — despite the fact that everyone was stuck at home — mothers still remained the household’s key figure. Together with people from different cultures and generations, this project explores the meaning of motherhood through interviews, discussions, and collective design workshops. Moreover, the artist wonders whether the role of the mother should be exclusively reserved for women with children. After all, if motherhood means taking care of someone else, ‘others’ like fathers, people without children, and queer people should not be excluded. Motherhood therefore also equates to otherhood. Sun Chang publishes the results from, and ideas surrounding her projects in letters and pamphlets that she makes in collaboration with designers, translators, and illustrators. The textile work, with an ant-shaped anthill on top, was made in response to the question which animal best represented motherhood. It is a cloak used by the workshop participants to — like the ants — emanate strength and solidarity.
Text: Esther Darley
Translation from Dutch to English: Marie Louise Schoondergang