6’4”
2024
Projection on Hanged Tablecloth
video projection
Traditional Chinese divination, steeped in conservative gender roles, often views women as objects rather than subjects, as inquirers rather than diviners, reinforcing orthodox family models and fixed societal roles based on age and gender.
Based on autoethnographic and archival research into China’s historic and emerging female divination trend, Reading the unheard subverts the male-dominated logic of the discipline by setting forward the voice of the female diviner like a ghost haunting divination. The work highlights how, when women challenge these fixed identities, divination can become a tool for reflection and imagination, creating spaces more suited to their voices.