On May 1, 2024 CAFA Graduation Season was officially unveiled at CAFA Art Museum. Just as the theme “Direction of the Heart” contains good wishes and sincere expectations for Class of 2024 at CAFA, 2024 CAFA Graduation Season does not only contain their art achievements, their enthusiasm and perseverance in creation are also reflected, which further conveys the imagination and expectations of young students as they embark on the road to the future.
The Work Giant Baby
Exhibition View of Giant Baby at 2024 CAFA Graduation Season
Giant Baby
By Chen Meibing from School of Experimental Art and Sci-Tech Art at CAFA
I have studied in the Social Art Studio of the School of Experimental Art and Sci-Tech Art at CAFA, and I pay more attention to social issues. When there was a discussion arose about “giant babies” in society, I began to reflect on myself and found that many things had been arranged by my parents since I was a child, and I followed them step by step, it turned out that I am also one of the “giant babies”. I lack the power to make decisions and the ability to think independently, so I started to create around the theme of “giant babies.”
Exhibition View of Giant Baby at 2024 CAFA Graduation Season
Giant baby, is a Chinese buzzword that originally denotes a baby of giant size, but is now generally used to describe a psychologically immature adult. The term was first used by Chinese consulting psychologist Wu Zhihong in 2016 in his book titled A Country of Giant Babies. It is often symbiotic in a family that feeds back to each other. Children lose the power and ability to live and think independently, and walk step by step on the road paved by their parents. At the same time, when a child becomes a giant baby, parents might be responsible for it.
Chen Meibing and Curator Lu Rongzhi (Victoria Yung-Chih Lu)
Installation View of Giant Baby at 2024 CAFA Graduation Season
My work is presented using a baby chair that is amplified four times. “I” sit on the baby chair as I did when I was a child, using the baby chair as my daily living area and doing the things I like on the baby chair. For our safety when we were young, our parents put us in safety seats to play and eat, and took good care of us. We long to grow up and become adults, without being constrained by the safety belt of a baby chair. After growing up, some of us continue to enjoy a comfortable life in a baby chair. They are addicted to their own world all day long, while being self-centered, and lack a sense of responsibility and the ability and attitude to work and study.
Chen Meibing introduced her work to visitors
The Creative Process of Giant Baby at 2024 CAFA Graduation Season
It calls on everyone to have a sense of responsibility and to get out of the comfort zone of “giant babies.” When you get close to my work, you will find that you cannot see the whole picture of it. Only when you are far away can you see the whole picture clearly. This is also a metaphor for the education status of some parents towards their children: The player sees less clearly than the bystander.. The work conveys my reflection on myself as well as the problem of “giant babies” in society.
Artist Chen Meibing
Artist Chen Meibing and Her Classmates
Courtesy of Chen Meibing, edited by CAFA ART INFO.
