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Transformation
Transformation is a handmade paper that is derived from my husband’s white linen shirt which is a Western style garment by Ralph Lauren. Also, I wrote Bible verses on the ‘Jeogori’ which is a portion of Hanbok to express the conversion of my religion to Christianity. From Western style shirt to traditional Korean garment, from Buddhism to Christianity, this is to convey the changes in my life.“The Hanbok Series” is influenced by the aspect of traditional Korean life. “Hanbok” is a traditional Korean costume that represents a symbolic aspect of Korean culture. |
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Comfort Women
Comfort women is made of hemp material which was often used in Korea for specific purposes such as funerals. The hemp is unsuitable for the purpose of garment. It is harsh and heavy for skin and it is rather used for industrial purpose. I try to response to an unfortunate history of Korea that ‘Comfort women’. More than 200,000 women were forced to become prostitutes or sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during Pacific War. I burned, cut, sewed and distressed the hemp Hanbok as the women were treated. Then, I let my fourteen year old daughter wear it for photo shots. Ironically the average age of the comfort women was fourteen.
Comfort women is made of hemp material which was often used in Korea for specific purposes such as funerals. The hemp is unsuitable for the purpose of garment. It is harsh and heavy for skin and it is rather used for industrial purpose. I try to response to an unfortunate history of Korea that ‘Comfort women’. More than 200,000 women were forced to become prostitutes or sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during Pacific War. I burned, cut, sewed and distressed the hemp Hanbok as the women were treated. Then, I let my fourteen year old daughter wear it for photo shots. Ironically the average age of the comfort women was fourteen.
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Harmony
Harmony is constructed from my family’s denim clothing, which merges traditional Korean forms with Western style material. My intention is to harmonize the two cultures and bridge the gap. It shows harmony of my families, of different cultures, harmony with generations--of old and new, and harmony with you and me. |
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Artist Book I
“Seasons of Human Life”
This book is to express the changes of human life. I scrapped different colors of magazine pages and cut them in different shapes to display each season, and on the other side, I covered with different figures of human.
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Artist Book II“The Seasons”
This is a handmade book by using woodblock print making technique. Some images were printed on the fabric and some were on rice papers, then I connected them like accordion. I tried to represent our life story through this project.
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Artist Book III"Life of Women"
I made this book with a full of my history. I sorted photos of my young age and the recent days. The book is filled with personal photos, but I wished that the readers to have common feeling and empathy of a journey of life. I focused at the similar and common situation of women. We spend our childhood with the parents until we meet someone and get married and raise children and get old...
I used a blander marker to transfer my pictures onto the Japanese and Korean papers.
In addition, I chose a rice roll mat for the frame of my book and this mat reminds me the life of my young age because my mom used to make rice rolls, and now I make rice rolls for my children occasionally. Turning kitchen utensil into art pieces was an interesting try for me.
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Artist Book IV" My Daily Life"
My daily Life is about my daily routine. I used a similar method as "Life of Women" I drew pictures of my daily life by hand stitching on the momigamy paper. Then I rolled them in the rice roll mat. I wound color threads on the empty spot of the mat. The thread implies a connection with my past and the present and the family |
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My 2nd installation is for my deck window. This time I chose gray transparent silk. Also, I cut out black nylon as a tree shape. And I made round shapes with my old jeans and color threads, and I arranged around the tree as age rings. (Trees make me think of resemblance with human’s life. Trees endure any weather conditions throughout a year, stand firm and wait until spring comes then each year trees earn one growth ring. I tried to display my life story through the tree.)
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This is my 3rd window installation. This time I made wood frames similar to traditional Korean windows. The Korean traditional windows are made with wood frame and covered with Korean paper ‘haji’. Based on my memories, I made a wood frame which fits my living room window. I divided sections and covered each section with different materials like ‘hanbok’ ‘denim’ ‘twine crochet’ and ‘handmade paper’. These combined materials show how different but coexisting two cultures harmonizing and conflicting in me.
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Window installation IV
This time I used handmade papers of cotton rag embedded with color thread. I cut out the handmade paper in round shapes and arranged them together and connected with the threads. I displayed them on fish lines. I implied the connections of my past, present, and future life in this installation.
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Window Installation V
For my 5th installation, I used transparent fabric and real branches. I wanted to show how my inner world was penetrated by outer world.
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Apron series I
Super mom & Failure mom
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