Nothing to Do with Me (2021) at SJTU, Song Difei

"Nothing to Do with Me" is the title of this work.

First, let me introduce why there is this project.

One of the reasons why I came up with this project is that I am making my portfolio so I have been racking my brain to come up with something interesting. Another opportunity was when I saw Song Ta's performance art exhibition called “Uglier and Uglier” on the internet, which had been a hot topic. He had recorded nearly 5,000 girls on a campus by a VCR. He then ranked them from the most beautiful to the most ugly according to his personal aesthetic preferences, and make the result into a video. This video was shown in UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, and it took more than 8 hours to complete the entire video. After the exhibition was announced, many people started to scold him on the internet, which led to the exhibition being pulled down in 2013. I'm not clear why this old story was brought up again this year, but he was interviewed by BIEDE, a well-known We Media publication.

In fact, according to Song Ta himself, he did not criticize the phenomenon of objectifying women when he created this work. And UCCA Center for Contemporary Art‘s presentation of the exhibition was very disgusting, “From the opening of the art gallery, the frst group of viewers were able to see the ‘school fowers’, but soon the screen was occupied by almost the same mediocrity. As night fell, the exhibition space was flled with inferiority and depression. It was ‘a hell on earth’.” https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/gender-diversity/ article/3137871/chinese-art-museum-shanghai-apologises-and

Uglier and Uglier that rates women from ‘prettiest to ugliest’.

“In the end, it was scary … they were normal people, not missing an arm or an ear or an eye, but just so ugly that it made people uncomfortable,” Song Ta said. “I objectify you in an honest way, that’s a type of respect. I will not randomly rank you frst place, that’s disrespect, that’s toying you with clever words.”

Top: Details of Song’s ranking system;

Bottom: Screenshots of the exhibition. From Art-Ba-Ba, Artron, and Vice https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1007909/song-ta-scandal-putsart-worlds-sexism-on-full-display