A brand new exhibition titled “China Dolls” by Canadian artist and photographer Nathalie Daoust was unveiled at Art Space 976 on Tuesday.

The photographic installation comprises of 28 portraits in black-and-white and hand colored prints which Daoust documented to demonstrate the struggles of women in the modern and overcrowded Chinese society. The artist hopes her collection will deliver her homage to women that have long remained in the shadows.

Fleeting and delicate, the collection serves as a perspective on the young women of China, struggling to find their identity in a rapidly changing country. From one portrait to the next, visitors will find dreamy, impressionistic, subtle and even melancholic images that serve to illustrate, from both historical and contemporary perspectives, the women who are now uprooting themselves from former constraints.

Daoust was inspired to create her latest collection while traveling in China in 2006. Since then, she has been going back and forth between Canada and China to explore the local culture. She was deeply intrigued by the role women play in the Chinese society and the impacts of the one-child policy, conditioning women to value sons more than daughters.

Using a specially constructed human-sized box, Daoust placed her female subjects in the dark, alone with their thoughts, while she photographed them with light painting.

Employing a variety of non-digital means to address her subjects, Daoust’s methods play a crucial role in communicating content. Using specialized darkroom techniques, the process of creating the image itself contributes to her conceptual explorations. She is the recipient of numerous awards, and her work has been extensively showcased and published worldwide.