{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1788634"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1788634/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PD5554/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PD5554/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PD5554","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1788634/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1788634","accessionNumber":"PH.7-2025","objectType":"photograph","titles":[{"title":"Happy 50th Birthday","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"‘Mother as a creator’ is an ongoing photographic series in which Taiwanese artist Annie Wang demonstrates the layered complexities associated with motherhood and its impact on her identity as an artist.\n\r\nThe series began in 2001, when Wang was pregnant with her son and to-date, their collaboration spans 23 years.  The concept was simple: each year, Wang and her son would take a photograph together, ensuring that the previous year’s photographs were visible in their makeshift studio setting.  The result is a complex layering of performance and photography – a collage of sorts – which spans and condenses time. \n\nMother As a Creator not only encapsulates a moving coming-of-age relationship but also highlights societal changes as we witness developments in technology and fashion. Wang says: ‘Here, I take a family photograph each year of my son and myself, and then the next year, take another image of us in front of the previous picture. Therefore, different layers of my son and I emerge on the same surface after a lengthy accumulation of detail and texture. Different stages of my son and I are overlaid; and from the different pictures, we have created a dialogue with each other in this dimension upon compressed dimension. From within these dimensions will emerge a new depiction/visualization of Motherhood.’\n\r\nIn Chinese, the word mother is closely connected with sacrifice and the ability to prioritise others other oneself. Wang references the Chinese proverb: “Honey is sweet, a kitten is soft, a mother is sacrificial”. Her photographs seek to critique the stereotypes that surround the archetype of the ‘selfless’ mother; stereotypes which Wang highlights as being particularly prevalent within heteronormative Asian families, and within Asian society.  \n\r\nThis photographs is a portrait taken in Taiwan in 2022, on the occasion of the artist’s 50th birthday.  Wang and her 21 year old son can be seen exchanging a birthday cake, whilst Wang holds a copy of her 2020 publication ‘Reframing Motherhood’. In the foreground are a variety of objects including a stone rabbit, a Chinese symbol of good luck which is connected to longevity and fertility. In the distance, the previous photographs are layered and pasted in the background, including the original portrait of Wang’s pregnancy in 2001. The result is a revealing yet alternative family portrait.\r\n","physicalDescription":"A black and white photograph of a domestic photography studio. A seated Asian man hands a cake to a standing Asian woman.  ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Hsiao-Ching Wang, Annie","id":"AUTH404171"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"Annie Hsiao-Ching Wang was born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1972. She received her PhD in Art from the University of Brighton in the UK. She can be found year-round intensely focused on issues related to the female identity and creativity in her photography, oil paintings, mixed media art, and art instruction. She is not only a professional artist and director of Ching Tien Art Space, but also an assistant professor at the Department of Arts and Design at the National Dong Hwa University."}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"","id":""}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Gelatin silver process","categories":[{"text":"Women photographers","id":"THES380381"},{"text":"Feminism","id":"THES48955"},{"text":"Studio photography","id":"THES277483"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"DOP","id":"THES291628"},"images":["2025PD5554"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"DR","shelf":"27","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2022","earliest":"2022-01-01","latest":"2022-12-31"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Acquired as part of The Parasol Foundation Women in Photography Project","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"60","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"40","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Photograph by Annie Hsiao-Ching Wang titled, 'Happy 50th Birthday' from the series Mother as Creator, gelatin silver print, 2022.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Cut Out: A Feminist History of Photo Collage, Montage and Assemblage (V&A publishing spring 2026)\n\nMother as a Creator is an ongoing biographical series in which artist Annie Hsiao-Ching Wang demonstrates the overlapping of artistic and motherly creativity in her life. Every year since Wang’s pregnancy in 2001, the artist and her son have taken a portrait together, ensuring that the previous year’s photographs are overlaid and visible in their domestic studio setting. This performative photograph was taken on the artist’s fiftieth birthday. Wang holds a copy of her 2020 publication Reframing Motherhood and she exchanges a birthday cake with her son. In the background, photographs from the previous sittings are collaged together, including the original portrait of Wang’s pregnancy. In the foreground are various objects, including a stone rabbit – a Chinese symbol connected to longevity and fertility.","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}}],"partNumbers":["PH.7-2025"],"accessionNumberNum":"7","accessionNumberPrefix":"PH","accessionYear":2025,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-03-25","recordCreationDate":"2024-10-15","availableToBook":false}}