Jennifer Ling Datchuk American, b. 1980
Hustlers, my neck, my back series (peach), 2023
Porcelain
12 x 9 x 4 in
30.5 x 22.9 x 10.2 cm
30.5 x 22.9 x 10.2 cm
Further images
The porcelain baby forms are cast from an antique Chinese export-ware ceramic pillow form—designed to prop up the head and protect hairstyles during sleep. An uncomfortable form of labor meant...
The porcelain baby forms are cast from an antique Chinese export-ware ceramic pillow form—designed to prop up the head and protect hairstyles during sleep. An uncomfortable form of labor meant to protect the façade of wealth and status. In the artist's words, "I remade them to carry the weight of Asian women’s labor, and they seem to wear expressions of delight on their faces while in a tabletop position, carrying things on their backs—a nod to how Asian women experience fetishization while also laboring and providing service, products, and resources. The objects they carry—peaches, oranges, blue-and-white porcelain vessels, peach pits, and sewing thimbles—represent longevity, luck, and beauty, and symbolize the labor they embody and the comfort and care they provide for others, even when they often go without."
Provenance
Artist StudioExhibitions
20 Years: Ruiz-Healy Art, Ruiz-Healy Art, San Antonio, TX, 2026-7Jennifer Ling Datchuk and Consuelo Jimenez Underwood: In Our Hands, Ruiz-Healy Art, San Antonio, TX, 2026
Jennifer Ling Datchuk: Eat Bitterness, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE; curator: Rachel Adams, 2023
Literature
Karr, Christopher. “Review: Shouting Through Porcelain & Barbed Wire at Ruiz-Healy Art, San Antonio.” Glasstire, October 19, 2026 (illustrated)
Trimble, Lynn. “An Artist Who Braids Cultures, from the Porcelain Trade to Beyoncé.” Southwest Contemporary, July 24, 2025. (illustrated)Fisher, Michelle Millar. “Jennifer Ling Datchuk Interviewed by Michelle Millar Fisher.” Bomb Magazine, September 5, 2023 (illustrated)
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