Installation
Dimensions variable
DNA electrophoresis gel on film, cast resin, acrylic, printed fabric, human hair, plush toys
2026
Me, my mom, and my grandmother all went gray prematurely.
It’s a genetic issue. There’s a medical term for it, but it doesn’t sound nice. At home, we just call it "that tuft.
"I did three things: collected saliva, sealed the gene segment responsible for "that tuft" (the DNA electrophoresis patterns of the three of us) into an acrylic block; plucked white hairs from each of our heads, placed them on the cotton coat my mother wore the year I was born, and scanned them—no retouching; bought three cheap skunk plush toys, added mechanical bodies and scent devices.
"Skunk" isn’t a curse word in Chinese. When my grandmother was young, she was afraid of being called "Bái Tóu Lǎo Lao," so she dyed her hair black for her wedding. My mom dyed hers too. I’m the first in the family who doesn’t.
My mother once asked me what, exactly, this work is about.
I told her: about the tops of our three heads.
She said, okay.
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