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Artworks
Jennifer Ling Datchuk American, b. 1980
Becoming, 2025Digital photograph, wood shelf, porcelain figurine. Made in collaboration with Ocean Ling TakabaFramed photograph: 13.5 x 20 in.
Wood shelf with porcelain figurine: 3 x 5 x 2.5 inEdition of 8Further images
'Ripening' and 'Becoming' are inspired by an anatomical Venus sculpture reclined on a bench from mainland China. Made from bone and mahogany, the figurine is believed to be historically used..."Ripening" and "Becoming" are inspired by an anatomical Venus sculpture reclined on a bench from mainland China. Made from bone and mahogany, the figurine is believed to be historically used by women in medical visits with male doctors, allowing them to indicate areas of pain while maintaining modesty. In these works, Datchuk transforms that history into a meditation on dualities. Her pregnant body reclines on an enlarged replica of the bench, her scarred skin forming a fertile landscape. Postpartum, she shares the bench with her baby, hovering as she nurses. Yet regardless of what women have attempted to reclaim, they still move between choices dictated by narratives they did not create. Ripening and Becoming. Pregnancy and postpartum. Fertility and infertility. Personal and political. Private and public. Childless and childfree. Mother.Provenance
"Inspired by a Chinese diagnostic figurine reclining on a bench and made of bone and mahogany, I believed to have been historically used by women in medical visits with male doctors, allowing them to indicate areas of pain while maintaining modesty. I transform this history into a meditation on dualities: my pregnant body reclines on the bench, and my scarred skin forms a fertile landscape; postpartum, I share this bench with my baby, hovering as I nurse." - Jennifer Ling DatchukExhibitions
Jennifer Ling Datchuk and Consuelo Jimenez Underwood: All That Before Us, Ruiz-Healy Art, New York, NY, 2026
Photo-Role-Playing, Northlight Gallery & Step Gallery, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ; curator: Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, 2026
Ripening, New Mexico State University Art Museum, Las Cruces, NM; curator: Marisa Sage, 2025-62of 2
