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When I’m in a forest, I’m not aware of the fact that I’m in a forest; I just happen to see a lot of trees in front of me. However, if I look at the forest from outside of it, I can see the forest. The life of those whom I paint is a forest. It’s the whole entire forest, not individual trees. Standing outside of the forest, I can see what kind of trees are in the forest, and where the pond and deer are. However, a rabbit living somewhere in the forest probably doesn’t know where there is a cave or valley on the other side of the forest. Unlike a rabbit in the forest, I desire to be someone living outside of the forest, capturing things that take place in the forest.
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contents
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Prologue
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Part One: Loss
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Part Two: Who We Are?
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Part Three: Bystander
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Part Four: Gaze of the other
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Part Five: Bystander 2012
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Part Six: Witness
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Part Seven: Material, Color, and Work Process
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Image Lists
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Curriculum Vitae
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prologue
IMAGE#1足- 01 untitled
prologue | 01
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Does it have more impact to experience something directly, or indirectly? The answer is probably to experience something directly. There’s even a saying that experiencing something directly once is better than listening to others speak about it many times. But when observing something, would it be more effective to be objective and apply something that I have experienced, or something that someone else far away has experienced? It would be wiser to take a step back and observe from the third-person perspective in order to keep neutral and look at everything from an objective point of view. I’m fascinated about things that happen in people’s lives. Most of the news we come in contact with through the media is about the things that happen in people’s lives. There is far less news about animals or machines than there is about people. Different things happen in the world because life is about people living interactively with each other in societies and countries. Through my work, I try to explore things that happen between an individual and another individual, group, society, and country. My work is different from that of ordinary office workers because I work independently. I don’t belong to a certain company or organization, have superiors who give me orders, or have to compete with coworkers. Therefore, I’m fascinated with, and curious about many people who are different from me, whose lives are dominated by a collective. Consequently, my work captures my life and the life of others from a third-person perspective. To others, I’m like the observer who observes them from a distance. I made art long before coming to Cranbrook Academy of Art. I’ve always liked doodling since childhood. Then one day, what I used to enjoy doing became a difficulty, when I realized that I didn’t know the answer to the fundamental question of what and why I was drawing. As I was used to drawing what I saw in front of me and making art as assigned to me, art suddenly became difficult when I realized I couldn’t explain my art practice. I couldn’t understand myself, but I needed a breakthrough somehow. To me, the breakthrough was to capture what I saw. During my undergraduate studies, I drew what I saw every day, on
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a small sketchbook the size of my palm. I focused on individuals and their life, such as a child jumping into a park fountain, his mother trying to stop him, a woman getting splashed by the water and getting angry at that child, a man eating a sandwich and talking business on his cell, a businessman walking fast and getting his deals through a cell phone, and a career woman and mother walking with her child in her high heels and carrying a document envelope, etc. Then I realized that although those individuals have just one body, they have many different sides of their life. A woman was a businesswoman, mom, someone’s daughter, friend and neighbor. Like many clothes in a closet, an individual’s personas existed as different sides of the person. I graduated from college and returned to my home country, Korea. Living in Korea for 2 years, I realized that personas of Koreans were very limited. Most working people I met went through various social situations with just one persona. They would go to work early in the morning, work until late at night, go home and without spending any time with their spouse and children, get more work done before getting very little sleep. Then they would go back to work early in the morning, endlessly repeat this cycle. It was an unbelievably threatening way of life that made me question if private life even existed for those people whose life seemed to be a monotonous repetition. While they say that social members live in a society and co-exist with others, they were actually living a repetitive life fixed on a certain career or way of life, rather than interacting with others and living as a community. It was frightening to see the life of such members of the society. Kids never really saw their parents, and relationship between parents and their children deteriorated. In the midst of broken family relationship was work. Living their life in just one persona, people today were slowly become negligent of their families and forming discordant relationships with others. A much bigger problem was that the existence as an individual was increasingly vanishing away.
prologue | 02
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In Korea, I started imagination classes with two different groups of people: elementary school children and company employees. My work included giving different topic every class, and getting the participants to express the subject through various materials. The two groups of students showed as much of a difference as their age gap. The elementary school children were comparatively enthusiastic about expressing their thoughts and using new material and expressions. Above all, their projects were as diverse as the number of kids in the class. The interesting thing was that in the case of company employees, who are more educated and experienced than the children, their projects were all similar. Each class, I worked with about 50 employees from one company. Although I worked with different company employees every class, what amazed me was that all of them gave such passive response and seemed to have one same way of thinking. Most of them didn’t like expressing their thoughts, cared more about what their superiors thought instead of discussing their own arguments, and captured what their superiors would agree with. Someone not used to a group culture, it was very difficult for me to understand. I don’t believe that such behavior is just a result of their working life in such a group-based society. Most Koreans are used to passive education system from very young age. Such passivity continues on into adulthood, thus it was hard to find individuality and personality in a person. This is an inevitable result of Korean education system, where everyone has to wear a uniform, sit in same position and study by cramming for a long time. People in Korea simply got used to this kind of life. People were neglecting personal happiness and individuality and aiming for the successful life as agreed by the majority, yet they didn’t even seem to realize that they were unhappy. The individual, like old faded paper with individual color worn out, and the society filled with homogeneous individuals, completely shocked me. My body of work while preparing for graduate school focused on such individuals who had lost their individuality.
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IMAGE#1足- 02 witness
prologue | 03
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IMAGE#1足- 03 loss
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Then in 2010, I was accepted to Cranbrook Academy of Art. I was still focused on the loss of individuality, but small changes started to take place. While I focused on the general notion of the loss of individuality before going to Cranbrook Academy of Art, my focus while in here became the discordant relationship between an individual and others (another individual, group, society or even country). A human being cannot live alone. Humans have always lived together, forming groups and societies. And society and individual coexist in a co-dependent relationship. However, in the society in which I live, the relationship between individual and society is not horizontal and share same level of power. Power exists in all relationships; only that authority is not the only power relationship that we can feel. There’s power struggle even in children, who become friends when the powers balance, and imbalance leads to outcasts. Human beings live together because they cannot live alone, and their relationships form power struggles that remain either balanced or not. There is a lot of power struggle of different levels in societies composed of groups consisting of individuals. From my observation, two has more power than one, and group has more power than two, and society has more power than group. Consequently, individual no longer co-exists with society, but rather subsists in it. They exist for the society, and have degenerated into social components. My works focus on individuality which has lost balance in power with the society, and has eventually become lost due to the unbalance of power. While studying at Cranbrook Academy of Art in the last two years, I worked on different projects on each of the four semesters. The four projects focused on the imbalance in relationships and loss of individuality through the individual him or herself, loss of individuality through others, loss of individuality through groups, and loss of individuality through the society.
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part one loss
IMAGE#2足- 01 loss
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Loss : The loss of individuality through the individual
part one | loss
My thoughts return to the very beginning, to my childhood, and the things that I have lost. I have lost not only material things like toys and accessories: but also fragments of memories, and peace of my mind. And in my memory the very first thing I ever lost was an umbrella. Umbrellas have a special meaning for me. I used to enjoy being underneath an umbrella, table, or closets when I was little. Particularly, I used to enjoy taking naps, reading story books and playing with my dolls under the umbrella. The umbrella was the most important object for me at the time, because it provided the most comfortable sense of place like the mother’s womb. However, as time passed, I could no longer spend time under the umbrella. Spending my time under the umbrella as I grew brought on comments by adults, like: “Why are you acting like a child?” Not only had I grown physically but in the social consciousness, a mature person acting like a child seemed immature. Just like that, I came to lose the first precious object that I remember. I soon began to find other precious spaces, memories and objects that slowly replaced this umbrella. However, as I grew up and things
began to change, things that were like precious ‘umbrellas’ to me started to become destroyed, abandoned and taken away. As if a balloon is blown away or is popped by someone as a joke, the precious things in my life like the ‘umbrella’ were blown away, just like that. This installation work represents the most comforting objects, memories and spaces of my growing-up years that are often symbolized as my ‘umbrellas’. In the work, I made four groups of busts in four different sizes, consisting of 1, 3, 5, and 7 busts. The primary numbers 1, 3, 5 and 7 cannot be divided by any other number than itself or number 1. I used this characteristic of primary numbers to emphasize the ‘self’. Sixteen differently-colored umbrellas, complementing the added total of the four primary numbers 1, 3, 5 and 7, were suspended from the ceiling. I made 4 different sizes of busts, from small to large. The 5 smallest busts signify my ego in elementary school years. They also signify the vanishing of 5 ‘umbrellas’ that were precious to me, and that vanished due to my physical maturation. The 5 symbols include dolls, bathtub, playground, laundry basket and space under the table.
IMAGE#2- 02 loss
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part one | loss
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IMAGE#2足- 03 loss
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IMAGE#2足- 04 loss
part one | loss
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IMAGE#2足- 05 loss
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The 7 busts next in size signify my middle school years. I lost the most number of ‘umbrellas’ during this period. My endless days at the hospital kept me from having an ordinary school life. I lost 7 umbrellas at this time, and they gave me the most unbearable sense of loss. The 7 things I lost were school life, free time with friends, travelling, picnics, physical education classes, delicious food, and hair. My days at the hospital kept me from being able to eat delicious food and there was nothing I could do about my falling hair. Also, the places I could visit were very limited, besides the hospital, home, and the classroom. Hence, I have no memories of going on picnics with friends, travelling or playing sports. The next three busts signify my high school years. I lost three ‘umbrellas.’ My medical treatments were over, but I was so busy returning to my ordinary everyday life, and there was no free time for me as a high school student in Korea. Most Korean high school students can’t afford to do anything else with their time but to study and prepare for the university entrance examination. I lost things like talking with my friends, comic books and everything else but time devoted to studying.
The one largest bust signifies my college days. Grown up, I was able to defend things that were precious to me, and they are still precious in my life. However, I lost my biggest ‘umbrella’ at this time in my life: a home. Leaving Korea behind, my new life in Chicago was so unfamiliar and uncomfortable for me. The ‘umbrella’ I lost at this time in my life, was the cozy and comfortable home. I used black organza to represent the darkness of this sense of loss, and used different colored threads to symbolize different sense of loss according to different periods of my life. All ‘umbrellas,’ each signifying particular preciousness was made with very bright colors. I made the umbrellas with the most vivid and playful colors, as if to signify how much joy and sentimental value they offered to my life. Unfortunately, those things disappeared due to changes in myself and my environment. I am no longer holding onto the handle of my umbrellas. Like a drifting balloon, my umbrellas are vanished in thin air.
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IMAGE#2足- 06 loss
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part two who we are?
IMAGE#3足- 01 who we are?
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Who we are : Loss of individuality through others
part two | who we are?
One spring afternoon on the last Saturday of April 2001, my childhood friend committed suicide. As it was midterm exam period for most schools, I unfortunately could not be with him. We (all his classmates include I) were filled with regret that we weren’t able to help him even though we silently knew what had driven him to jump off a fifteenstorey apartment with just a letter left for his parents. Ten years later, my circle of childhood friends keep in touch through internet, phone calls, text messages and occasionally meeting up. The Ten years is an entire lifetime of changes. Once students who wore the same uniform, had same hair style, similar backpacks, went to school at same time, studied in one class with same book under the same schedule for the same reasons, we were now living our own lives. We were no longer the mass-produced factory products we used to be ten years ago. There is a term called helicopter parents in Korea. It refers to parents whose lives revolve around their children. Although their intentions might be to provide the best they can for their children, they might not be aware that such intentions are actually hurting their children. In Korea, most parents desire for their children to study hard and well, be accepted into a good university, choose a good major (ones that can promise high-salaried position with integrity, such as doctors, lawyers, professors, etc),
have good jobs, meet a good partner, have children and have a happy life. Thus, parents pour all their interest and effort into their children’s studies from an early age. Schools also strive to send their students to a good university (high-ranking university) to a good major (one that promises employment, for example Departments of Medicine, Dentistry, Education, Business, Law and Engineering). Parents and schools think that such students can be their pride. Having spent our school days under such expectations of parents and education system, we find ourselves as adults all of a sudden, with each one of us living our own lives, with a career we might or might not desire. Some of us are living the lives our parents wanted, some living what they themselves had wanted, and some living a life even they didn’t know whether their parents wanted or they themselves wanted. Some friends, having just recently realized they’d been living the life their parents wanted, quit their jobs and went back to university to find what they want. Suddenly we became curious what our friend might be doing now, if he hadn’t ended his life ten years ago. All that remained of him was his hovering existence in a group photograph we took wearing the same school uniform.
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IMAGE#3足- 02 who we are?
part two | who we are?
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IMAGE#3足- 03 who we are?
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part two | who we are?
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IMAGE#3足- 04 who we are?
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IMAGE#3- 05 who we are?
My friend, who now only exists in my memory, also lived under helicopter parents. His father was a professor at a prestigious university, and his mother was also very well-educated. His older brother was a model student in the region and in his school. He was the type of son his parents expected and desired, who eventually was accepted into a university and major respected by others. Shadowed under high expectations and under such an overachieving brother, my friend refused to be his parents’ dummy and eventually chose to depart from them. All we remember of him is the bald-headed middle school student dressed in a school uniform ten years ago. However, the people in that group photograph, with same hair style, uniform and shoes, with just different faces, no longer exist. I wonder if we were
to take a group photograph now, what it would look like. My work intends to capture ourselves in the past and in the present together in a group photograph. As far as I can remember, my friend also grew up in his parents’ expectations. His father was a professor at a prestigious university, and his brother was a model student. His brother grew up to his parents’ expectations, and eventually ended up in a university that’s praised by others. The expectations and interest people placed on my friend’s brother passed down on him. Now, 10 years since then, Korean society has opened up a bit more, and parents seem to be more willing to support their children in what they want to be. But at the time, all that most of parents wanted was for their children to exceed in academics. My friend was a bright student, but fell
part two | who we are?
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IMAGE#3- 06 who we are?
short of his parents’ expectations and was always compared with his brother. Although my friend had many friends and had many things he did well besides studying, his parents just wanted to him to study well, go to a good university and have a good job, rather than respecting his uniqueness and helping him find the right path for himself. Studying was the key to all success in my parents’ generation. They believed that exceeding in school guaranteed a successful future regardless of the social status or wealth of the family. Such convention still prevails today. My friend refused to be his parents’ dummy, and decided to end his own life. All I remember of him now is the boy in school uniform with shaved head 10 years ago.
Through this work, I wanted to focus on the idea of predominant way of thinking that’s passed down from generations to generations, and also capture the generation today that’s much more open than generations before. This work juxtaposes the school uniform from my parents’ generation, and the position of hands that signify the only freedom students have in the classroom. Interesting note about school uniforms in Korea is that although uniforms today have changed and modernized, some schools still use uniforms from my parents’ days. I also wore old-fashioned uniform. The school uniform I use in my work is the old-fashioned uniform that’s the most representative and dominant style of uniforms in Korea.
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IMAGE#3足- 08 who we are?
IMAGE#3足- 07 who we are?
part two | who we are?
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Every day, over 40 students gather in a classroom, wearing the same uniform looking at the blackboard in front of them. At a glance, they look like the same student. Sitting for over 10 hours in the class room filled with rules and restrictions, the students find their own sense of freedom. While their bodies sit in the desk and face the black board, their hands are free to send and receive messages with each other, and pass around notes. They quietly put their hands in the desk to take out snacks, and even read comic books under the desk. Within the uniformity, the 40 students release their sense if individuality through their hands. In this work, I made 20 male school uniforms and 20 female school uniforms. All uniforms look the same, but instead of the labels, I embroidered the name of my classmates on each one of the uniforms. Portraying the hands of freedom moving busily under the desks, the 40 pairs of hands underneath the uniforms express different gestures. The juxtaposition of the uniforms and the hands signify the juxtaposition of fixed ideas in my parents’ generation and individuality in my generation.
IMAGE#3Â- 09 who we are?
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part three bystander
IMAGE#4足- 01 bystander
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Bystander : Loss of Individuality through Social Negligence
part three | bystander
Human beings cannot live alone; thus they form groups and societies. Ironically, however, this characteristic of human beings does not guarantee that individuals always form intimate ties with others. In the past, Agricultural society allowed individuals to depend on and support each other and form naturally intimate relationships as farming couldn’t be done alone. They shared in joys and sorrows of life, helping each others from sowing to reaping. There were times when people even knew how many spoons their neighbors had. With the onset of industrialization, people no longer needed help from each other and to form close ties with others. Before we knew it, people were forming societies in which individuals were completely indifferent to each other. The term Bystander Effect was given after a murder case in US. In 1964, an American woman named Kitty was murdered in front of her house in New York. 38 people witnessed her murder, but until she was stabbed to death, none of them called the police or the ambulance, or try to stop the crime. Even when an individual was in a fatally critical situation, 38 witnesses just remained bystanders. At the time, this event became a huge social issue.
IMAGE#4Â- 02 bystander
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part three | bystander
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However, this wasn’t a social problem of only just that time. Bystanders are evident everywhere. One of the biggest issues in Korea in 2011 was youth violence in schools where many would assault one ‘outcast’. The assault was beyond joking around to serious violence. Middle school students took part in sadistic beating and mental assault of one student, causing the victim to eventually commit suicide or causing serious mental and physical damages. The more serious problem was that although such assaults were being taken place openly in classrooms, witnesses like other students or teachers were keeping silence as bystanders. Although the media cannot cover all cases of bystander effect, people remain bystanders in every facet of society, even myself, at times. What’s more serious is that everyone, regardless of age, is affected by the problem. There aren’t too many people who would help someone passed out on the streets. Children also remain bystanders; even when their friends are being left out and assaulted at school, they rarely ask for intervention from their parents or teachers. We are being bystanders to someone when they are down and out and asking for help, and we turn aside focusing only on our own problems.
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IMAGE#4足- 04 bystander
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part three | bystander
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Countless things that happen quietly in our society are cases of Bystander Effect that make select individuals into outcasts. Thinking how I can become a social outcast due to the distant indifferent bystanders, I find this a serious problem that can’t be overlooked in silence. This work traces individuals becoming an outcast in a society, and how the majority or the society overlooks the individual outcast in silence. Departing from previous materials or working approach, I made small figures for this work. Taking two different postures, the figures either have their arms crossed, or have hands tied behind their back. The two postures symbolize bystanders, hiding their hands and saying “I have no hands to help you” and “I have nothing to do with you.” The figures are like small 8 inch dolls. Like architectural models that present the whole overview of the buildings, I made miniature models of people to demonstrate in one view, the majority being indifferent to an individual social outcast. Rather than using fabric, I decided to use thread, wrapping each of the bystanders with different color thread. The patterns in which they are wrapped are all different, signifying the individuality of the figures.
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IMAGE#4足- 05 bystander
part three | bystander
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part four gaze of the other
IMAGE#5足- 01 gaze of the other
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Gaze of the Other: Unilateral Agreement – Loss of Individuality through Social Promises
part four | gaze of other
Various kinds of regulations constitute a society. They are largely legal and official regulations, ethical standards, and customs and traditions based on culture. From family to country and international relations, there are regulations and conventions that must be kept. As such, regulations that promise a more stable environment of life are referred to as social norms. And social constituents try to keep and obey such norms, through which human beings feel a sense of unity and harmony. On the other hand, however, people often confine each other in the frame of such unity, criticizing anyone who stands outside of social norms. Although legal and ethical standards must be kept, customs and conventions don’t necessarily need to be kept. Even then, we try to stay in social standards, because stepping out of such standards can lead to alienation. My work questions these social standards, as to when they were formed, through whom they were formed, and why the majority of people try to abide by them.
There aren’t always sure answers to everything in this society. The law and ethical standards should be kept like common sense. For example, acts of assault and violence are wrong both legally and ethically. On the other hand, unjust social conventions or parts of Confucianism don’t necessarily need to be abided by. For example, the traditional family system in Korea is based on passing down direct family line through the oldest son. Therefore, boys served an important function in the family, and it was preferable to give birth to a son than to a daughter. The traditional family system favoring patriarchy can often be seen in the traditional Korean culture deeply immersed in Confucianism. Such long faulty tradition has continued on, yielding more people to have boys even to the point of causing an imbalance in the number of boys and girls in the society. Even though the Korean society calls these conventions ‘evil habit’, the society also denounces the rejection of these old customs.
IMAGE#5- 02 gaze of the other
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part four | gaze of other
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Obviously, not all customs are wrong. Newcomers to a neighborhood passing around rice cakes to his or her new neighbors can bring people closer together in warmth, and the custom of elders always starting the meal first before children can teach manners to the young. However, I believe that just as times and world change and civilization develops, social customs must change accordingly. While law and social systems change to suit the time, customs and conventions remain stagnant. Many people from the older generation still think that their standards are the norm, and try to measure the younger generation with their own judgment of right and wrong.
IMAGE#5Â- 03 gaze of the other
This work uses traffic lights—which is an absolute rule that all generations, peoples and nations must abide by—to illustrate the standards in our life today that remain unchanged and fixed despite the changes of time. In place of lights in the traffic light box that give out signals, I inserted expressionless faces of people. The faces are hung up high at the top part of the traffic lights, looking down on the world. The audience below looks up at the faces in the traffic lights box, which seem to signify the surveillance-like qualities of social standards. While in most cases one traffic light box is attached to one pole, there are many signals on one pole in my work. This signifies the fact that in the one society in which I live, there are many kinds of social customs, regulations, traditions and order. There are as many faces as the regulations that must be kept.
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IMAGE#5足- 05 gaze of the other
part four | gaze of other
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part five bystander 2012
IMAGE#6足- 01 bystander 2012
Bystander 2012:
part five | bystander 2012
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IMAGE#6-03 bystander 2012
part five | bystander 2012
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part six witness
IMAGE#7足- 01 witness
Witness: (and then there were none):
part six | witness
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Bystander Series (2011-12) focused on the social phenomenon of bystander effect, in which the majority of people, when witnessing others in dangerous situations, would merely stand back with arms crossed. The latest work Witness: And No One Else was There focuses on majority of people who would simply wait and remain a witness with their arms crossed or in their backs.
Before development of civilization, everyone in the society worked collaboratively. Everyone helped each other, because they knew helping each other was necessary for survival. Villages farmed together, and shared joys and sorrows of life. However, as the society developed with industrialization and machines replaced people, individuals started to realize that they can still survive without gathering forces because machines and factories were able to
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IMAGE#7-02 witness
do what villagers can do as a whole, much faster and more precisely. As time passed, society developed rapidly and people were able to indulge in a more comfortable life. People didn’t form as solidarity of a collective as before, and individuals become increasingly more indifferent towards each other.
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When someone faces a dangerous situation in front of many people, most people don’t help him or her out, but merely stand back and watch. They form a crowd to gain anonymity and share the responsibility with many others, and finally desert the individual. Feeling a sense of kinship with surrounding others in the crowd, people chose to remain in the crowd. They chose not to take the responsibility, blinding themselves, pretending not to see what they see and not hear what they hear. They shut their mouths and don’t speak of the truth. An individual becomes part of the crowd, trying to rid themselves from all responsibilities. They chose to remain a witness, with the thought that someone else can take the responsibility.
What I wish to ask through this project is what makes people gather into a crowd and what turns them into witnesses who cover their own eyes and ears and mouth. Ironically, in the society that values uniqueness and individuality, people leave their individual selves and become a part of the crowd to become a sort of object, or a sense of invisible presence that’s there but not actually there. This project also makes me think about how I would feel to be part of a witnessing crowd as if nothing has ever happened, or if I were the individual left out from that crowd.
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part six | witness
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part five material color work process
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Material: Fabric and Thread
part five | material
The main materials I used in my work are fabric and thread. The type of fabric I use is organza. Among many kinds of organza fabric, the kind I use for my work is Nobang, the fabric used to make Hanbok, the traditional Korean costume. Nobang is neither transparent, nor opaque. Semi-transparent, Nobang is neutral type of fabric. I became fascinated with this semi-transparent fabric which has brilliant color yet is partly see-through, because it conveys my idea of human being.
Organza in Who We Are is an individual and portrays the neutral position of an individual who belongs in a group. The uniforms and hands are all made with organza in this work. The uniforms symbolize our parents’ generation enforcing their old way of thinking on their children. The hands signify the younger generation that confronts the parents’ generation. Each forming a large group in the society, the two sides can be seen in a family as parents and children.
Human being exists as an individual and at the same time, as a member of the society. As society has a more comprehensive range than individual, it’s more conventional to think that the individual belongs to a society. However, my idea of human being belongs in the intersecting point where the individual domain and the social constituent domain overlap.
Gaze of the Other also consists of organza. If there is a slight difference at all, it would be that two kinds of organza, opaque and translucent, make up the work. Symbolizing the individual, the faces in the traffic light are made of translucent organza, portraying the neutral position of the individual. It portrays the point where the individual and the social member intersect. On the other hand, the traffic light—which symbolizes social standards and conventions—is made of opaque organza. The overlapping of two layers of organza makes the fabric opaque, which signifies that the traffic light is not situated in a neutral position because it stands for society itself. It’s a dominant group that includes the individual rather than intersecting with the individual.
Organza in Loss signifies a neutral position that exists in memory but does not actually exist in reality. This work consists of a bust that represents my umbrella and myself. The umbrella and the torso portray everything I value from my past, and represents myself. They are things that all existed in the past, but no longer exist in the present. However, just because they no longer exist doesn’t render them into things that never existed. They exist for as long as they exist in my memory.
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IMAGE#8-01 loss
part five | material
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My works are three-dimensional works made of fabric that cannot maintain form. A form is usually something that can maintain itself with bone structure filling the inside. However, my sculptural works made of fabric cannot maintain its own shape. They can only maintain their form by being suspended from the ceiling with thread, hovering over like formless apparitions. By the use of material with ghost-like presence that hangs down from the ceiling like marionettes, the intention behind this work was to express how the majority, group and society controls and dominates over the individual. By being suspended from the ceiling, the torsos and the uniforms in Loss and Who We Are give off a feeling of passivity. The bust symbolizes the individual, but the individual is a social constituent who is no longer allowed to feel comfortable in his or her childhood space because of social bias. I longed for the space underneath the umbrella, but the social prejudice robbed me of that space. Therefore, I had to passively accept the fact and part from the umbrella. The passive individual symbolizes someone like myself who has to reject something valuable from childhood because of such prejudice from the society. By suspending the torsos from the ceiling and making them immobile on their own, I wanted to reference the passive individual. The 40 uniforms also hang from the ceiling like marionettes, unable to move on their own but open to external control. The uniforms in Who We Are symbolize my class of 40 classmates who, like marionettes, sat in one space staring in one direction, passively taking in cramming system of education and being controlled by our parents.
IMAGE#8足- 02 bystander 2012
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IMAGE#8- 03 bystander
Another material I have used for a long time, along with fabric, is thread. In Asian culture, thread has the implicative meaning of a person’s life. On a child’s first birthday table, a bundle of thread symbolizes longevity. Thread also symbolizes the crossing over of different fates, as well as severing ties and relationships. When making tradition Korean funeral costume of a deceased, one long thread is used without making any knots. Because knots symbolize the final ending, there are no knots in funeral costume so that the deceased can continue life after death. As such, thread is a metaphorical expression for many aspects of life in the Korean culture in which I was raised. I have been dying and using thread since my undergraduate studies,
and also used thread for my Bystander projects. By wrapping the figures with thread and severing ties between figures wrapped in thread, I wanted to symbolize the severing of human ties. I used all kinds of thread in Bystander. From thin silk thread to thick winter sweater yarn, and from naturally dyed thread to jute, synthetic and nylon, each bystander was made in a specific thread, with no two bystanders being made with the same thread and same color. I portrayed the individuality and life of each bystander by using thread, and symbolized disconnectedness between the bystanders by severing ties in the thread between the bystanders.
Color
part five | color & work process
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IMAGE#8- 04 witness
I use a wide range of colors in my work, from faint off-white to fierce red, pastel yellow to deep indigo. At the same time, however, the colors can also be very monotonous. I mainly use achromatic colors like black, grey and white, along with various other colors in my work, trying to give the effect of strong contrast. The achromatic colors symbolize the majority, community and society that dominate the individual. On the contrary, the colorful body elements like face and hands, express individuality. In the repetition of same form and size in my work, the diversity of color is the sole element that signifies the only aspect of individuality. The juxtaposition of color is also apparent in Loss. Symbolizing myself having lost something, the torsos are made in black. On the other hand, the umbrellas that symbolize precious things are in various colors from yellow to pink to indigo. This contrast is also clear in Who We Are. Uniforms in Korea are not usually black: they vary quite a range of colors, from yellow, blue check pattern, grey, blue, and maroon, etc. However, the uniforms in my work are black with contrasting collars in white,
because I wanted to give off a feeling of passivity and oppression. They also symbolize a group that doesn’t value individuality. Uniforms stand for institutions, a group in which students belong, as well as the society which constitutes such institutions. The institutions and society demand from each student what they think is ‘good’. Forming a strong contrast with the uniforms are 80 hands in various colors. The hands represent the students (myself and my friends in my school days), filled with individuality and character, who resist the institutional and social oppression. The 40 pairs of hands are all in different colors to symbolize the diversity in individuality. The thread in Bystander is also diverse in color. All of the 200 bystanders are in different colors, and the victim being neglected is in dark neutral color. The contrast between achromatic colors and diversity of colors is also clear in Gaze of the Other. Symbolizing social standards and promises, the traffic lights are black. Indicating the individuals, the circular traffic lights are individual faces in different colors. The work also demonstrates the confrontation between individual and society.
Work Process
IMAGE#8Â- 05 untitled
From the beginning of my art practice, I have applied manual sewing to my work. I make figures by handsewing, and wrap the thread around figures by hand. The individual figures in the work are all made in the same shape and size in the same manner. The same pattern was used for the torso, uniforms, hands, and faces, etc. One mold was used to produce casts of many bystander forms in the work Bystander. They all look the same at a glance because they’re all made of same material, shape and size. Such unity in form connotes the human being as an individual living in a society. However, every individual is different. Not only is the individuality expressed by the different colors, but also by being made one by one, through hand. As I am a human being and not a machine, each figure inevitably has its own distinctiveness no matter how much I intended to make them the same. I believe that the manual labor approach to my work demonstrates a level of individuality.
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Image Lists
image list
prologue
IMAGE#1- 01 untitled 2011, organza Variable dimension
IMAGE#1- 02 witness 2013, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#1- 03 loss, 2010 2012, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#2- 02 loss, 2010 organza and umbrellas Variable dimension
IMAGE#2- 03 loss, 2010 organza and umbrellas Variable dimension
IMAGE#2- 04 loss, 2010 organza and umbrellas Variable dimension
part one
IMAGE#2- 01 loss, 2010 organza and umbrellas Variable dimension
IMAGE#2- 05 loss, 2010 organza and umbrellas Variable dimension
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IMAGE#2- 06 loss, 2010 organza and umbrellas Variable dimension part two
IMAGE#3- 01 who we are 2011, organza Variable dimension
IMAGE#3- 04 who we are 2011, organza Variable dimension
IMAGE#3- 05 who we are 2011, organza Variable dimension
IMAGE#3- 06 who we are 2011, organza Variable dimension IMAGE#3- 02 who we are 2011, organza Variable dimension
IMAGE#3- 03 who we are 2011, organza Variable dimension
IMAGE#3- 07 who we are 2011, organza Variable dimension
IMAGE#3- 08 who we are 2011, organza Variable dimension
IMAGE#3- 09 who we are 2011, organza Variable dimension part three
IMAGE#4- 01 bystander 2011, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#4- 02 bystander 2011, mixed media Variable dimension
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image list
part four
IMAGE#4- 03 bystander 2011, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#5- 01 gaze of the other, 2012 organza and led light Variable dimension
IMAGE#4- 04 bystander 2011, mixed media Variable dimension IMAGE#5- 02 gaze of the other, 2012 organza and led light Variable dimension
IMAGE#4- 05 bystander 2011, mixed media Variable dimension IMAGE#5- 03 gaze of the other, 2012 organza and led light Variable dimension
IMAGE#4- 06 bystander 2011, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#5- 04 gaze of the other, 2012 organza and led light Variable dimension
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IMAGE#5- 05 gaze of the other, 2012 organza and led light Variable dimension
IMAGE#6- 02 bystander 2012 2012, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#5- 06 gaze of the other, 2012 organza and led light Variable dimension
IMAGE#6- 03 bystander 2012 2012, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#5- 07 gaze of the other, 2012 organza and led light Variable dimension
IMAGE#6- 04 bystander 2012 2012, mixed media Variable dimension
part five
IMAGE#6- 01 bystander 2012 2012, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#6- 05 bystander 2012 2012, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#6- 06 bystander 2012 2012, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#6- 07 bystander 2012 2012, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#6- 08 bystander 2012 2012, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#6- 09 bystander 2012 2012, mixed media Variable dimension
image list
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part six
IMAGE#7- 05 witness 2013, mixed media Variable dimension IMAGE#7- 01 witness 2013, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#7- 02 witness 2013, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#7- 03 witness 2013, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#7- 04 witness 2013, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#7- 06 witness 2013, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#7- 07 witness 2013, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#7- 08 witness 2013, mixed media Variable dimension
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part seven
IMAGE#8足- 01 loss, 2010 organza and umbrellas Variable dimension
IMAGE#8足- 04 witness 2012, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#8足- 02 bystander 2012 2012, mixed media Variable dimension
IMAGE#8-05 untitled 2011, organza Variable dimension
IMAGE#8足- 03 bystander 2011, mixed media Variable dimension
curriculum vitae
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JUNE LEE
Education
Artist.junelee@gmail.com www.junelee.kr
2012
MFA Cranbrook Academy of Art in Fiber, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2008
BFA School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Painting and Drawing, Chicago, IL
Permanent address 9-701 Kyung nam APT, Gae po dong, Gang nam gu Seoul, 135806, South Korea Studio Address Magnolia 2201, Dun san dong 939, Seo gu, Dae Jeon, 302828, South Korea
Exhibition solo exhibition 2012
1st Solo Exhibition, Kips Gallery, New York, NY, US
juried group exhibition 2013
Revelation, 1st France Craft Biennale, Grand Palais, Paris, France
2013
8th Cheong ju International Craft Biennale, Cheong ju, Korea
2013
Korea Tomorrow 2013, Seoul Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2013
28th Tallahassee International Exhibition, FSU Fine Art Museum, FL, US
2013
Fantastic Fiber 2013, Yeiser Art Center, KY, US
2013
Flatlanders and Surface Dwellers, 516 Arts, NM, US
2013
View Point 2013, Montclair Studio, Center for Contemporary Art, NJ, US
2012
Open Door 8, Rosalux Galley, Minneapolis, MN, US
2012
New Fiber 2012, Eastern Michigan University Gallery, Ypsilanti, MI, US
2012
Body: Double: The Figure in Contemporary Sculpture, Fredric Meijer Garden & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, MI, US
2012
Art Prize, Fredrick Meijer Garden & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, MI, US
2012
Graver Lane Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, US
2012
Korean Art Show Special Exhibition, New York, NY, US
2012
Fiber Philadelphia 2012, Crane Art Building, Philadelphia, PA. US
2011
Focus: Fiber, Canton Museum of Art, Canton, OH, US
2011
WWW. Exhibition, Northfield Art Guild, Northfield, MN, US
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2011
Portrait Show, Forum Gallery, Bloomfield Hills, MI, US
2011
Detroit Artist Market, DAM Gallery, Detroit, MI, US
Collections 2012
Bellevue Art Museum Shop
2011
The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation
group exhibition
Publication
2012
Degree Show, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI. US
2012
Fiber Arts Now (Winter Issue)
2012
Fiber House, Forum Gallery, Bloomfield Hills, MI. US
2011
Fiber Focus 2011-2012
2011
Mercedes-Benz
2011
Knit Brow, Kingwood Gallery, Bloomfield Hills, MI, US
2011
One x One, Detroit, MI, US
2008
BFA Show, Gallery G2, Chicago, IL, US
Art Fair
Art Loan 2012-2013 Mercedes-Benz Cranbrook Art Selection for 2012-2013 Exhibition at MBFS in Farmington Hills, MI, US 2011-2012 Mercedes-Benz Cranbrook Art Selection for 2011-2012 Exhibition at MBFS in Farmington Hills, MI, US
2013
AAF Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden
2013
le SM`ART 2013, France
Teaching Experience
2013
Art MONACO 2013, Monaco
2012
Red Dot Art Fair 2012, Miami, FL, US
2012-Now “Creative Work”, Solbridge International School of Business, Dae-Jeon, South Korea
2012
SF Fine Art Fair 2012, San Francisco, SF, US
2012
Korean Art Show 2012, New York, NY. US
2011
Red Dot Art Fair 2011, Miami, FL, US
Awards 2013
8th Cheong ju International Craft Biennale, Honorable Mention Award of Jury
2013
View Point 2013, Montclair Studio Honorable Mention Award of Jury
2013
15th Annual All Media Exhibition, Upstream People Gallery, Special Recognition
2012
3rd Place of New Fiber 2012
2012
Fiber Philadelphia 2012 In Memory of Judith Altman Second Place
2012
Korean Art Show, Selected Emerging Artist
2011
First Place of Detroit Artist Market. Cranbrook Academy of Arts Annual Scholarship Awards
2012
“Imagination Collage” for Governors at Central, Human Education Development Center for Governors in Kwa-cheon, Kyung-ki-do, South Korea
2012
“Abstract Art”, Solbrigde International School of Business, Dae-Jeon, South Korea
2009
Recipient Lecturer of Kwa-Cheon, Future Award in Drawing, Kyung-ki-do, South Korea Human Education Development Center, Kyung-ki-do, South Korea
2009
Lecturer for “Installation Art” Program at “Han-ma-eum’ Education Program at POSCO Engineering & Construction CO, Ltd, Kang-won-do, South Korea
2009
“Roadmap” Lecture for New Employees Action Learning Program Human Development Center, Kyung-ki-do, South Korea
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