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My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
BY
WANG Hsiao-Ching
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
My Son and I at the Same Height
2002-
color-print
01 / 10

I wanted to create an imaginary horizontal line establishing a height for both my son and I. Rather than make it a scientific activity like Eadweard Muybridge, I wanted to use the formal conventions of the family photograph - the Happy Snap. This is a project that is in progress as my son learns how to walk and beyond.

The first photograph was taken initially without a sense of its being important but it quickly inspired me to make this artwork. When my son walked and I supported him with my hand on the low wall in front of our home in Hove, we felt extremely happy from this interaction at the same height, so I recorded the image. After enlarging this photograph, I started to find other scenes in which we could stand at the same height and this became an important regular event in our life.

As this project developed, I found I gained greater personal understanding of the meaning of these happy family photographs which I felt I was asked to commit myself to by my own culture. The smile, I discovered, rather than being just what is expected of the Mother, came naturally from the happiness I felt at my son’s growing and our interdependence. It seems to imply that we love to get along with each other without the pressure of gender-different expectations. I attempted to express equality and mutual respect between mother and son through visual equality everywhere. I hope that through this visual code of practice, we can often remind ourselves to treat other people equally and with mutual respect.

I think this attitude is as important to my son as primogeniture. I don’t want the conventional status of primogeniture to make him arrogant or pressure him with a lot of responsibility when we go back to our country. Moreover, I expect that the unequal weighting of gender, the male-centredness of previous generations will have diminished greatly by the time he is grown up.

ARTISTS
2 artworks / 74 exhibition
Photographic Art
Annie Hsiao-Ching Wang received her practice-based PhD in Art from the University of Brighton (UK). She has been enthusiastically and intensively studied on the issues related women’s identity, creativity and visual culture in her artworks and res ...
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KEYWORDS
WANG Hsiao-Ching, 2001-, Photographic Art