Afterschool (2021)
In school, at age 14, I first experienced some of the darker sides of humanity. In class, some of the more brutal kids bullied a skinny boy simply because of his appearance and academic performance. They tore his hair, beat his face, tied his hands to the radiator, and even took off his pants in public. However, no matter how excessive the abuse, others in the class seemed indifferent. So, I decided to stand up and resist the bullies' violence in a small way. In literature class, we were required to write an essay about our school life. I took the opportunity to record the bullying incident and let our teacher read it aloud in front of the whole class. With this, the bullying in our class finally received attention from the teacher and was successfully stopped, but I cannot stop thinking about these experiences even today.
In Afterschool, I attempt to construct the mental state of the bullying victims, the bystanders, and the bullies themselves. These three different groups of people from the bullying incident can be identified by three sets of school uniforms in very different colors. Although there are multiple characters presented in the photos, they are all represented by one model to show that the viewer could, in fact, take on any one of these roles. Rather than simply documenting schoolyard incidents, Afterschool demonstrates a more introspective and ambiguous approach. By using psychoanalytic and sociological ideas, I attempt to further explore each perspective in the situation and not simply stay on the surface of my past.
As this project progressed, I continued to update my own views on bullying in schools. Finally, I came to the conclusion that the bullies, the victims, and the bystanders are all conflicted in their minds, suffering and struggling together in their own ways. The project is no longer about standing up for the victims, persuading the potential bystanders, nor justifying those bullies, but rather about trying to understand every one of them along with the viewer. I believe that this understanding is the only way to help eradicate bullying in schools and the indelible damage it brings.
