The Mythology of the Iron Chain

The Mythology of the Iron Chain hijacks an instructional video explaining how chains are made. Through appropriation, repetition, and textual intervention, the work examines the chain not only as a physical object, but also as a symbolic and structural device through which violence, control, and oppression are manufactured and normalised.

In the video, I repeat and distort violent metaphorical phrases from the original footage, inserting images that intensify relations of power, domination, and captivity. Alongside these images, I add texts that point to the mechanisms through which gendered violence, as well as other forms of systemic oppression, are produced, enforced, and rendered ordinary.

The work is a direct response to the Xuzhou Chained Woman incident, yet it does not name or represent the incident directly. Instead, it generalises the image of the chain in order to create associations with gender-based violence and broader systems of restraint, while also avoiding the reproduction of traumatic imagery. This indirectness also became a strategy for navigating censorship and potential backlash.

By tracing the industrial making of a chain, The Mythology of the Iron Chain traces the social, linguistic, and symbolic processes through which oppression is assembled, repeated, and legitimised.