My practice uses moving image and installation in order to explore medical situations, in particular focusing on sufferers of cancer. Through creating these works I hope to improve the quality of life for cancer patients and to create awareness and visibility in society of people living with cancer. I was born in Hunan Province and am currently living in Shanghai, due to its proximity to the cancer treatment hospital.
Yuanhui Ding
The key theme of my work is about cancer and survival. The reason why I want to choose this focus is because of my own identity. My mother is a cancer patient. When I was 4 years old, she had her first operation and two-thirds of her stomach was cut off. I grew up with my mother’s illness. I grew up with food without salt and oil. Five years ago, my mother's cancer recurred again. This time the doctor removed all her stomach and directly connected the esophagus to the intestines. As the daughter of a cancer patient, cancer is very familiar to me. For the development of science and technology in today's society, cancer does not mean death. A large proportion of cancer patients fight the disease, and then they survive for many years. In China, the group of cancer patients is relatively under-appreciated. The main reason I made this work is that I hope that the society will have more understanding and attention to this group of cancer patients.
Warning: This work contains mature or explicit content.
Click to Enter
MY NAME IS YASHU DU — Screen shot
The first video tells of the lives of stomach cancer patients from the first perspective, taking my mother as an example. The video features my mother, Du Yashu, at home and speaking to the camera (and me) about her experiences.
The main content of the first video:
A simple introduction，the first operation and second operation condition.
The mood changes after being diagnosed with stomach cancer (from being sad to gradually firming up her faith). After the operation, the condition of her body slowly recovering and the changes in her diet (from liquid food to semi-liquid food to soft food). The situation after the operation (after second operation, she needed to insert 6 tubes in her body to help her body drain fluid). The status of chemotherapy (from injection chemotherapy to medication chemotherapy due to physical reasons)
Side effects of chemotherapy (hair loss, weight loss, decrease in red blood cell and white blood cell index). treatment drugs (Chinese medicine). Food changes (seafood, beef and lamb are not allowed and many vegetables are not edible). Changes in mood (Her mood tends to become depressed, and she needs to take anti-depressants every day. She almost lost all her circle of friends and became lonely.
Medium:
Moving imageSize:
11mins 50s
1962-2021 — screen shot
The second video records a period of preparation before cooking Chinese medicine. The voice-over of this video tells the stories of a cancer person from her birth to the present(1962-2021). In China, most medical treatments are performed simultaneously by Chinese medicine and Western medicine. Take cancer as an example. More than 90% of patients drink traditional Chinese medicine every day to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy. For example, the daily amount of Chinese medicine reaches 2kg, then add water and simmer for a few hours to turn into 3 bowls of water, and then take it. In addition, the cancer patient group is different from other special groups in that it cannot be directly judged by the naked eye. For example, some disabilities can be directly understood through the lack of functioning body parts, but cancer patients cannot. Because of the side effects of chemotherapy, most cancer patients will have many dark spots on their hands. So I controlled the content of my lens to only have the three elements of: Chinese medicine, the Chinese medicine jar, and her hand.
Medium:
movie imageSize:
11min26s
daily life — screen shot
The third video mainly records her daily life in a diary-style footage, following her movements from home and to hospital. The camera captures her exercise after she woke up in the morning, and the soft food she ate for breakfast. In order to ensure better food nutrition, she fed a few chickens to have a fresh egg every day and planted some organic vegetables as a nutritional supplement. Tai Chi is used as the main exercise every night. Every three months, she will go to the hospital for a physical review. I filmed some of the review content. (Injection, moxibustion), after each review, the hospital will prescribe the required Chinese medicine for 3 months. I recorded that my mother sorted the medicines every day and put them in different bags.
Medium:
movie imageSize:
16min23sWarning: This work contains mature or explicit content.
Click to Enter
hands — Taking my mother's hand as the prototype, the filling of the hand is transparent glue and Chinese medicine.
Taking my mother's hand as the prototype, the filling of the hand is transparent glue and Chinese medicine.