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TELESCOPE

video installation

The Telescope.jpeg

         There have been around 60 child-abuse incidents in kindergartens in China since 2010, while this is the second high-profile case of alleged child abuse at a Chinese school this month.

         According to state newspaper People’s Daily on Nov. 23, some parents of children who attend the Red Yellow Blue kindergarten operated by RYB Education, in Beijing’s Chaoyang district, said that they found needle marks on their children. A total of eight children were reported to have needle marks. Some parents also told the publication that their children had been given unidentified pills, brown syrup, and were sometimes forced to stand still or locked inside a dark room as punishment. The parent also said that her child told her that one time an adult male was naked while conducting body checks on children in the class. The Beijing-based education group said it was “deeply sorry” and has also reported potential “malicious claims and defamations from individuals” to police. The school operated as usual today. RYB, founded in 1998, were public in September on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the first Chinese early-childhood education provider to list in the US. Multiple calls to RYB’s headquarters from Quartz went unanswered. From now, all of the relevant news and parents’ interviews were erased online over and over again.

         The video installation “Telescope” is a three-dimensional installation combined with three groups of projection on three black boards enclosed in a darkroom, which provides the sense of private space to the viewers. Since the original audio has already disappeared online, the background audio is re-created according to the text recorded, which depicts the conversation between mom and kid after mom noticed the needle marks on the body of kid. Along with the audio, the white subtitle of the conversation is gradually shown on the black boards. “I have a telescope that has super powers, it can get to wherever you are. Whatever you do or say, I will be watching.” The threaten words from the teacher is flashed in the middle board, at the same time hitting in front of viewers’ eyes. The projections were played in a dark room with only a little yellow light on the back of the board, while it creates the space for viewers to be personally on the scene and feel the same with the mom and kids.

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