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Pink Fantasy
粉色幻想

Pink Fantasy originates from Joy Island Lei’s own experience of migration and her experience as a woman. The project explores the gendered situations, identities, and agency of East Asian women—especially Chinese women—who migrate to major cities abroad. From a social and cultural perspective, East Asian women often face gender-related norms and structural constraints. When they leave familiar environments and enter new social, cultural, linguistic, and everyday systems in pursuit of new possibilities, these situations can become even more complex. Drawing on feminist scholar Chizuko Ueno’s statement, “Being a woman isn’t a gender, it’s a situation,” the project further explores the intersections between individual experience and gender, culture, and social structures. The artist is also part of this group and is therefore one of the subjects herself.

Pink Fantasy currently features multiple Chinese women born between 1960 and 2000 who currently live in New York City. Each participant’s personal experience engages with specific themes, such as family of origin, anxiety related to identity and career, marriage, intimate relationships, fertility, gender awareness, and cultural belonging.

The project combines staged photography and constructed portraiture, and uses fruits, pink, and other metaphorical visual elements to develop a visual narrative. Joy Island invited each subject into the studio and conducted an in-depth 
conversation before the photoshoot. These conversations were subsequently edited into oral histories for the accompanying book. For her, the studio was not only a space for photography, but also a safe space where she could find stillness amid the major changes of her first year in New York. She therefore hopes that the photographic process can also become a space where both the artist and subject can temporarily step away from everyday life and care for one another.

Along with portraits, she shot body close-ups, usually of their hands. She chose pink as the uniform background, exploring how a color so closely associated with gender can participate in the construction of female representation. She also asked each participant to choose a fruit that they felt represented themselves and incorporated it into the image. Like pink, fruit carries longstanding cultural associations with the female body; in literature, film, and everyday discourse, women are often compared to juicy, sensual fruits. By allowing participants to choose this imagery themselves, the project also opens up new possibilities for the relationship between women and these existing symbols.

The series is included in the accompanying book and exhibited at Chateau Gallery in New York, Cambridge Photography Gallery in the UK, Chania International Photo Festival in Greece, deadbooks Gallery in Osaka, and PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai, among others.

欢岛的摄影项目“粉色幻想”源于她自身的迁徙经历及作为女性的个体经验，探讨东亚女性，尤其是中国女性，迁徙至海外大城市后的性别处境、身份与主体性等议题。从社会与文化层面来看，东亚女性常面临与性别相关的规范与结构性困境，而当她们离开熟悉的环境、进入新的社会、文化、语言与生活体系，去追寻新的可能性时，这些处境也可能变得更加复杂。借由上野千鹤子的“女性不是一个性别，而是一种处境”的论述， 项目进一步探索个人经验与性别、文化及社会结构之间的交织。 艺术家也是这个群体的一员，因此她也是其中一位被摄者。

截至目前，欢岛已拍摄多位出生于1960至2000年间、生活于纽约的中国女性。每位参与者的个人经历涉及不同议题，包括原生家庭、身份与职业焦虑、婚姻、亲密关系、生育压力，以及性别意识与文化归属感等。

该项目结合布景摄影与建构式肖像，并通过水果、粉色等隐喻性视觉元素展开视觉叙事。
欢岛邀请每位被摄者进入影棚，并在拍摄前进行深入对话，相关内容随后以口述史形式收录于同名摄影书中。对她而言，影棚不仅是拍摄空间，也是初到纽约第一年、在巨大变化中让自己安静下来的安全空间。因此，她希望拍摄也成为一个让彼此暂时脱离日常、相互关照的场域。除肖像外，她也拍摄局部身体特写，大多为手部。她以粉色作为统一背景，探索这一具有性别指向性的色彩如何参与女性形象的建构。同时，她邀请参与者选择一种能够代表自己的水果，并将其置于画面之中。水果同样承载着长期与女性身体相关联的文化隐喻，在文学、电影及日常话语中，女性常被比作多汁、感性的水果。而由参与者自行选择这一意象，也为女性与这些既有符号之间的关系打开了新的可能。

该系列作品已收录于同名摄影书，并于纽约Chateau画廊、英国剑桥摄影画廊、希腊Chania国际摄影节、大阪deadbooks画廊及影像上海艺术博览会等机构展出。

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