Trauma and the Body - Han(恨)

The works of <Trauma and the Body> attempts to visualize and express the inner wounds of many modern people, who just live it with anguish feeling affected by the various sources from household and society. It is difficult to understand one’s pain exactly and we probably understand a very small portion of the pain because we are not in the same situation, but still, the feeling can be shared and transmitted to another so we could feel a similar way. This is called, ‘empathy’. Technology and science development can help to understand human beings but its’ focus is different. They approach the human as a tangible object and help to physical matters and provide materialistic conveniences, whereas the artworks can comfort the people and share the empathy which should be its privilege or characteristics.

In her recent works, the artist chose a traditional Korean paper called, Hanji, which is not so popular or well-known in other countries, but in Korea, the material has been used for more than hundreds of years and been loved until the mid-twenty century. This material can simply present the identity of Korean and artist herself because the material is a kind of raw feeling which is not exaggerated or pretended, instead of controlling one’s feeling. Moreover, this material, regardless of social rank or wealthiness, has been used for daily life in Korea, from clothes, framing windows to lampshades like everyday objects.

Hanji has its unique materialistic features and aesthetic values. Its consistency is strong and durable and colors can vary as dyed from natural materials such as flower, fruit, brown-soil, and so on. Its’ color makes people very calm, comfortable and natural. Texture also an important factor as well which has a various range of thickness and roughness depending on the way of processing.

In the works, the textural effect of Hanji has an equivalent meaning with people’s inner state of mind. It implies the people’s remaining, retracing or remembering trauma in their deep in mind. she has tried to express the form of trauma with the textural effect such as scratching, layering and collage which represent the different status of the people’s feeling and its’ complexity. And on the surface of previous vase artwork, many small nails are covered by Hanji, which she wanted to express our inner wounds or pains which seems like being covered but in fact, it is not. In our deep in mind, they still are there. As time goes by, the layer may become thicker and the nail hump may get faded but it will not go away and become flat and smooth as a new shiny ceramic vase.