I Got Super-Strong Courage - Jian (Frugality)
Isa Ho
何孟娟
Production date
2008
Object Detail
Media
inkjet print and acrylic paint on paper
Measurements
120 x 80 cm
Notes
Isa Ho’s series of photographic works, ‘I Got Super Strong Courage’, features the artist playing various roles that explore the contradictions, struggles and compromises of a female identity in the contemporary world – most particularly the complex gendered identity of the Asian female. Her stated intention with this series, which she began in 1999 and completed in 2010, was to explore how contemporary women seek self-confidence and empowerment, responding to changing social pressures in uncertain times. In a Taiwanese society in which patriarchal Confucian norms still have power, the contradictions with sexualised images in the media and the confusing plethora of mutually contradictory social expectations create struggles and confusion. Ho has subtitled these 5 works with the names of Confucian virtues to which women were expected to conform. She playfully subverts the virtues in the visual contradictions – for example the value of ‘frugality’ features the artist wearing sexy thong underwear made from the least possible amount of fabric. Ho says, ‘Perhaps we are our own worst enemies of we allow ourselves to be restricted by tradition or by an unclear, clichéd westernisation.’ In this work the artist crouches with her back half turned away from the camera, holding a gun in one hand and what appears to be a smoke bomb or grenade in the other. Her fierce image is undercut by the edge of her red thong underwear seen above the waistband of her battle fatigues. She intended the jokey reference to the Confucian female virtue of frugality to be represented by the scarcity of fabric in her underwear, thus subverting the expectation that a woman should be a good housewife rather than a courageous warrior. ‘Super strong courage’ is required to navigate the complex path of competing ideologies and forge an independent identity.
19
19
Accession number
2013.043