Scholastic Trauma

J-Collabo, Brooklyn, NY, US.

Deng's work is a commentary on the de-individualization found in educational systems present in China. China's education plays a significant role and influence in standardizing the identity of China's youth. Meanwhile, there is a parallel in the United States, where an increasing number of charter schools favor test-based education and militarized management, leaving a stigma on generations of young students. Collectivism training and mass cultures are at the core of political influencers.

Through the repetition of individual form, the installation presents the complexity of these politics of the masses present in both the Asian and the Occidental political structures, supporting a greater whole hierarchy, leaving the individual with a general feeling of emptiness. It stems from the artist's personal experience growing up in China, where he has developed an ambivalent relationship between memorization and disconnection. "Scholastic Trauma" attempts to reconcile the symbiotic relationship between the disciplined and the subliminal.

Curator: Sacchi Shimoda

Solo show by Tianlan Deng