The eponymous Wonderland is derived from the mega-investment and mega-scale amusement park built in the fringe of Beijing in the 1990s. The Chinese title “Wo De Lan” is a transliteration from the English word “Wonderland.” Eagerly anticipated at the time, this giant project of spectacles held the ambition to become “the World’s Largest Amusement Park”, only to find itself – due to complex circumstances – abandoned for decades and demolished as a result.

In Ma Qiusha’s installation Wonderland, smashed slabs of cement with the same size are encased in varied complexions of the nude-colored nylon stockings. They are then pieced together to form new blocks and shapes. Though nude-colored nylon stockings have certainly become passé nowadays due to their poor elasticity and artificial look, they were however once the fashion trend amongst Chinese women in the 1980s and 1990s. In searching of her own childhood past, Ma found that nude-colored nylon stockings weren’t used to declare one’s individuality or unique taste, rather, it was a way to mask the body and their inherent differences. In the process of creating this work, Ma Qiusha applied clear nail polish to patch small tears on the stockings, in the exact same way that her mother used to do – before the age of mass production, and when frugality was honored as the norm.

The body serving as a both a private and collective entity, the memory and warmth of an intimate object over the skin, and the aesthetics of a bygone era interweave in this large ground installation of Wonderland.

(Edited by Lijie Wang & Miao Zijin)