Exhibition | Prune Nourry: Terracotta Daughters

Prune Nourry’s latest investigation into gender preference, Terracotta Daughters, at Gallery Magda Danysz (September 14 – October 26, 2013) is at once exhilarating and sobering. Building upon her Holy Daughters project, a reflection on gender preference in India, Nourry turned her attention to China. Nourry used the Terracotta Warriors, a powerful symbol of the enduring richness of Chinese culture, as well as masculine force, as the inspiration for Terracotta Daughters, an army of 116 life-sized clay girls.

According to the artist, “India and China alone represent 1/3 of the world population and both have a similar gender imbalance. This sociological phenomenon is due to the preference parents give to having a son. The number of single men has been increasing ever since the 80’s due to the misuse of ultrasounds to select the sex of the child. This leads to disastrous consequences for the situation of women in Asia (kidnappings of children and women, forced marriages, prostitution, population migrations…).”

Nourry’s research led her to the University of Xi’an in China where she met with sociologists that study the impact of gender imbalance on societies. Xi’an is also the site of the Terracotta Warriors, funerary art from 210 BC of more than 8,000 life-sized figures that were unearthed by accident in 1974 and later declared a UNESCO site. Emulating the style and techniques of the Terracotta Warriors, Nourry sculpted eight life-sized girls, each was modeled after an individual Chinese orphan that she met through a children’s welfare non-profit from central China, The Children of Madaifu. In collaboration with Nourry, local Xi’an artisans created 108 more figures using molds, but each “Daughter” received a unique face and the signature of the artisan who modeled it, as it was done with the ancient warriors.

The exhibition included the Terracotta Daughters, arranged in relation to the archeological site that they are based on, bronzes, photos, videos and the plaster molds themselves. The show was an immersive experience that documented how the project came to be, but Nourry’s project continues. The sale of each of the original eight sculptures will fund the education of the individual orphan who inspired the portrait for at least three years through The Children of Madaifu.

Prune Nourry is a French artist based in New York whose work explores bioethics; her performances, artworks and installations often draw upon the medical world. Nourry’s work brings attention to issues that arise from recent advances in science and is particularly focused on artificial procreation. Trained as a sculptor, Prune Nourry has developed a multi-disciplinary approach, favoring media that the audience can interact with and participatory art experiences. Nourry graduated from the Ecole Boulle, Paris in 2006. In the United States, Nourry is best know for Spermbar, an installation and performance on 5th Avenue, commissioned by The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) for Crossing the Line Festival, New York, 2011. Exhibitions and performances stemming from her 2010 project, Holy Daughters, have taken place at Centre Pompidou, Paris; Polka Gallery, Paris; Galerie Henrik Springmann, Berlin; The Invisible Dog Art Center, New York; Flux Laboratory Genève, Carouge, Switzerland; and New Delhi, India.

Amy Albracht is a General Editor at CFile.

 

Prune Nourry, Terracotta Daughters, 2013. Images courtesy of Magda Danysz Gallery

Production documentation of Prune Nourry’s, Terracotta Daughters. Photographs by Prune Nourry. Images courtesy of Magda Danysz Gallery

Terracotta Warriors, Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. Xi’an, China

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