State control is deeply rooted in Chinese culture. When Xi Jinping took office in 2013, he began the systematic pursuit of “the Chinese Dream,” a blueprint for a new reality. But the Chinese Dream is an illusion, a controlling device for an expanding state apparatus that requires soft, pliant, and mute subjects.
Jello Dream is an allegory of the social contract between China’s government and its citizens. At its center is an inverted jello sculpture containing deformed, star-shaped hearts. The stars represent Chinese patriotism, the contradictions of life under a cruel, Fascist system that works in covert and subtle ways.
The molded jello sits on one side of a blood-red dining table. The jello has a flag with an emoticon-like portrait of the jello, and beneath it is a placemat with the same image. Across the table is a burner phone displaying a photo of the jello.
The jello is designed to evoke children’s desserts in family restaurants. It stands for the country’s citizens: fragile, silent, and designed to be consumed. When one is consumed, others made in the same mold are there to replace it. They are sacrifices that ensure the continued operation of the state apparatus that consumes them.
Gelatin, food coloring, acylic on enamel plate, acylic on plastic folks and knives, acylic on table and chairs, fabric.
Dimension various.
Pigment mixed with silicon, steel chains, nails.
26 x 26 x 4 inches