Stepmother is a series that contains sculptures and photographed performances. Stepmother No.1 and No.2 are interventions on a growing tree and a piece of slate found alongside a river in Johnson, Vermont. In the case of the slate, Yang removed a block of slate material in the parameter of a metal ruler in order to ﬁx the measuring tool onto the natural object. The slate and the ruler share the same substance (mostly iron), while the ruler was processed to ﬁt a human societal standard. What she did was to arbitrarily “pair back” the mom and the synthesized child. Hence, the title Stepmother reveals Yang’s satirical critique of human intervention in nature - and, in the case of measurement philosophy, the arbitrary act suggests a conception that misconceptualized what measurement really is.

Stepmother No.3, 2024, Wood, 6 1/2 x 33 x 5 1/2 inches

Stepmother No.3 also indicates the idea that “every conception is a misconception.” The difference is that this artwork is displayed as a portable sculpture, and it is a dead, static object rather than a living organism. A wooden ruler cutout with only gradation marks is embedded into a piece of driftwood. Removed of numbers and readable text, the “wood-ruler” becomes pre-linguistic and negates the use value of the measuring tool.

The other side of Stepmother No.6