Furen Dai
Artist Statement

Furen Dai’s practice has focused largely on the economy of culture industry, and how languages lose function, usage, and history. Dai’s hybrid art practice utilizes video, sound, sculpture, painting and collaboration. Her years as a professional translator and interest in linguistic studies have guided her artistic practice since 2015. She has been researching and developing the nearly extinct language of NüShu. The language, derived from Chinese characters, was created and used exclusively by women.

Dai received a Bachelor in Russian Language studies from Beijing Foreign Studies University in 2010, a Graduate Diploma in Entrepreneurial Management from Boston University. She also holds a MFA degree from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in 2016. Her work has been widely exhibited in the U.S. and around the world. Past exhibitions include 13th Athens Digital Arts Festival (Greece), OSMOSIS Audiovisual Media festival 2017 (Taiwan), Illuminus Boston 2017, Now&After'16, The State Darwin Museum (Moscow). She is a recipient for The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation Fellowship in 2017, Excellence Award for the 21st Japan Media Arts Festival. The exhibition at 456 Gallery will be her first solo show in New York.

Artist Web Site
http://www.furendai.com
Demo Video
Furen Dai's video work began with her research on a Secret Women Language called NvShu, which originated and developed as a secret code among women in Hunan Province, China. Through research she discovered that though the language has lost its functionality, women who know the language have been pressured into performing their cultural activities as entertainment for tourists for menial wages. She has presented a language factory in her video and the act of producing secret women language as art object to sell to people who don't have access to the meaning of the language.
Works & History
2018The 21st Japan Media Art Festival, Excellence Award
Culture Club event, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
Solo Exhibition -Language Producing Factory, EMW Gallery, Boston
HARD: Subversive Representation, University Hall Gallery at UMass Boston, curated by Sam Toabe
The 21st Japan Media Art Festival of Award-winning works, The Nation Art Center, Tokyo, Japan
This is it, iartcolony, Rockport, MA
Body of Light, curated by Jeff Perrott, Beehive, Boston, MA
UNSTATED, Coburn Projects, New York, NY
2017Solo Exhibition- Language Producing Factory, Gallery@sepencer lofts, Chelsea, MA
The Gig Economy, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston

Serial Box nighttime screening project, Missouri, MO

Illuminus Boston 2017, downtown Boston, MA

OSMOSIS Audiovisual Media festival 2017, Taipei

Truth or Consequences, §üb∫amsøn (subsamson), Boston, MA

Emerging Artist show, Boston City Hall, MA

Dispatches screening from Boston Underground Film Festival short screening, Somerville theater, MA

Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Memorial Exhibition, Brookline, MA

The Projection Room, The Unstitute, www.theunstitute.org

Koan, iartcolony, Rockport, MA

Streetlight at ROMAN SUSAN gallery, Chicago, IL

Pop-up show, Samson at Lovelight farm, Boston, MA

FONLAD - International Video Art and Performance Festival, Comibra, Portugal

History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme, Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA

BCA Gala

13th Athens Digital Arts Festival | VIDEO-ART, 23 Mitropoleos str, Historic Center of Athens

Intangible Threads, The Front Space, NH
The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation Fellowship at OMI Art Residency, New York
Up/Rooted, exhibition curated by María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Brookline Arts Center

"Teenaged" , Fort Points Art Gallery, Boston

Mother Tongue Pan-Asian Boston-Area Women Artists, BHCC Art Gallery, Boston

The Feminist Opposition, Hera Gallery, Wakefield, RI

38th Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Monmouth Musueum, Lincroft, NJ, United States

Iteration, 263 Gallery, Boston, MA, United States

"30 Under 30", Viridian Artist, New York, U.S

Present by Lauren K.O'Neal, the director and curator of Lamont Gallery at 2017 Southern Humanities Conference, Louisville, Kentucky, United States (http://www.southernhumanities.org)
2016FEM Tour Truck, Bilbao (España), Madrid (España), Covilha (Portugal), Lisboa (Portugal), Valencia (España)., Barcelona (España), Vitoria (España), Cuenca (Ecuador), Bogotá (Colombia), Manta (Ecuador), Quito (Ecuador), Guayaquil (Ecuador).

Language Product, Boston Arts Academy, Boston, United States

Now&After'16, The State Darwin Museum, Moscow, Russia

‘Hotel Europa’, Concordia, Enschede, Netherlands

Public Trust, Artist Ambassador with Paul Ramirez Jonas, Boston, United States

Merry Go Round, Yve YANG Gallery, South End, MA, United States

Family Outing, 555 Gallery, South Boston, MA, United States

MFA Thesis, Cyclorama, Boston Center for the Art, Boston, United States

Media Art Annual, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, United States

MFA Thesis Screening, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, United States

Zooming in on Ai Weiwei, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States

Quicksand, New Art Center, Newton, MA, United States

Boston Biennial 4, East Boston, MA United States

Rhino-Plasty, Anderson Auditorium, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, United States

Change Agents: Personal Art as Political Tactic, Lamont Gallery, Exeter, NH, United States

Without Issue, Dorchester Art Project, Dorchester, MA, United States

She Comes in Rags-2016 Painting Biennial, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, United States

Neither Here nor There, Yuan Art Museum, Beijing, China

Yu Yu China Blue, Yuan Art Museum, Beijing, China

Yu Yu Vietnam Blue, National Museum of Fine Arts, Hanoi, Vietnam
Sum of the parts, National University of Fine Arts, Hanoi, Vietnam
29th Festival Les Instants Vidéo, Marseille, Martigues, Briançon, Argentina, Italy.

Bideodromo Festival, Bilbao, Spain

Boston Film Gala, Boston, United States

Lovecraft NYC Film Screenings, New York, United States

Edinburgh Artists' Moving Image Festival (EAMIF), Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh