Prune Nourry's Terracotta Daughters


  • Photographer
    Zachary Bako
  • Prize
    3rd Place / Event/Social Cause
  • Company/Studios
    Zachary Bako
  • Date of Photograph
    2013
  • Technical Info
    Canon 5D Mark II, 21mm, 24-70

NY-based artist Prune Nourry explored China’s gender imbalance by creating a female army of 116 life-size sculptures. Nourry’s Terracotta Daughters were modeled after eight female orphans from China, whom she was introduced to by the Children of Madaifu; a non-profit organization that aids orphans and children left behind by migrant worker parents. Ms. Nourry collaborated with a local artisan inside a Terracotta Warrior replica factory in Xi’an, China, for more then a year to ensure the sculptures style would emulate the iconic Terracotta Army that was unearthed nearby in 1974. The project provided three years of education to each participant.

Story

New York-based artist Prune Nourry explored China’s gender imbalance by creating a female army of 116 life-size sculptures. The Terracotta Daughters symbolize China’s millions of missing women.

Nourry’s Terracotta Daughters were modeled after eight female orphans from Mainland China, whom she was introduced to by the Children of Madaifu; a non-profit organization that aids orphans and children left behind by migrant worker parents.

Ms. Nourry collaborated with a local artisan inside a Terracotta Warrior replica factory in Xi’an, China, for more then a year to ensure the sculptures style would emulate the iconic Terracotta Army that was unearthed nearby in 1974.

Nourry said, “Today through scans, through ultrasounds, science gives us a tool to select gender and abort a fetus if it is a girl. This is a reality in Asia, especially in India and China, which together have one-third of the world’s populations. Such an imbalance in turn has consequences like child trafficking, trafficking of women, and forced marriage. This is a search of the origins and the consequences of this issue…Progress is only possible if you have discussion.”

The project was financed by the sale of the eight original sculptures, which also provided three years of education to each of the eight participants.

The sculptures were exhibited at Magda Danysz Gallery in Shanghai in September 2013. They will head to Paris, Switzerland and then onto the United States before returning to China in 2015 to be buried until 2030 as a modern day archaeological site.

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