Vera Yijun Zhou

Born in the year of the pig, Vera Yijun Zhou was mocked in her youth by other children, an experience which made her feel she embodied the failed image of a ‘pig’. In many cultures, pigs are seen as dirty, and pork products are not consumed. Calling someone a ‘pig’ is usually considered derogatory, and is even classed as a form of bullying by Facebook, amounting to a violation of its user code. Questioning the cultural norms that declare pigs physically and intellectually inferior, Zhou used the game engine Unity 3D to construct a dehumanised world out of images of pigs and pork. Across multiple screens and billboards within this alternative reality, Zhou questions how pigs might look at screens in a pigs’ world, and whether pigs would be offended by pork images on social media. In doing so, she also considers how representation via images generates culturally specific notions of failure, and the huge database of images we collectively create and consume every day.