Blueprint: Reimagining Motherhood Through 3D Printing And Performance

In 2023, I created a time-based performance where I cultivated bacteria from my own body — treating them as symbolic children and carrying them inside four external incubators strapped to my abdomen. The work mimicked the full cycle of pregnancy, but shifted it outside the flesh, asking what happens when motherhood is no longer confined to the body.

My new work, Blueprint, transforms this performance into sculptural form. It consists of 19 resin vessels, each 3D-printed from the original incubators. Suspended on the wall, the vessels are connected by clear tubing to a large central fish tank. The tank, however, remains empty.

The emptiness is deliberate. It becomes a symbol of reproductive labor separated from intimacy, nurture, and flesh — laid bare as infrastructure. Without the body to sustain it, what remains of creation? What is the meaning of motherhood when it is externalized, technologized, and made visible as a system rather than an act of care?

Blueprint continues my exploration of posthuman motherhood, where the boundaries between body, technology, and reproduction are blurred. It asks viewers to reflect on the emotional, ethical, and cultural weight of creation when detached from biology.

More info: yidiwang.art