Song Dong is known for his innovative conceptual videos and photography that quietly reveal the societal implications of a modernizing China. His art also expresses how he personally copes with his country’s rapid development, while retaining a spiritual connection to the past. A highly skilled artist, Song Dong’s works are especially powerful in articulating the effects of radical change and social transformation on members of his own family.

The centerpiece of Song Dong: Dad and Mom, Don’t Worry About Us, We Are All Well is the much heralded, large-scale installation Waste Not, comprised of over 10,000 items ranging from pots and basins to blankets, bottle caps, toothpaste tubes, and stuffed animals collected by the artist’s mother over the course of more than five decades. A core theme of Waste Not is the idea that people, everyday objects and personal stories are not only spiritually rich in thematic material but recognizable evidence of the impact of politics and history on family life.

The exhibition also features a selection of the artist’s videos and photographs from 1997 to 2011, including Father and Son in the Ancestral Temple (1998), Listening to My Family Talking about How I Was Born (2001) and Chinese Medicine Healing Story (2004/2011), all of which use photo-based imagery to consider familial identity, individuality and the legacy of ancestors. Collectively, the works create a longitudinal portrait of Song Dong’s use of art as a way to form closer bonds with his mother and father, as well as his siblings, wife and daughter, and to express the power of the family as a social unit.