Artist statement
In April of 1986, I was 30.
I was working with paraffin which overheated and 40% of my body was burned.
After graduating from a woman’s university and majoring in embroidery, I had always dreamed of being married, being the best wife and a mother and of working on my art. It had only been a year, after giving birth to my two children, that I was finally living the life that I had dreamed of, reconnecting with the artist within me.
A year, and my whole body was burned and I was looking at death, face to face. I changed.
Is there an afterlife? Was there a life before this? Why was I here? Are these worlds connected?
My children can continue their life, live and grow even after I die, but my work stops the moment I stop living. This led me to constantly think and worry about my work which is completely dependent on me.
The doctors told me that I would not be able to use my right hand. Forever. In those hours of despair, all I could do was pray.
Then one day, I met Jesus in my dream and He sent 5 bright rays of light onto my fingers. I decided not to believe in the doctors and underwent 8 surgeries and 3 years of rehabilitation. Every living moment was agony, but slowly, my fingers started to move. Although still numb, they were moving and the doctors told me it was a miracle.
The fact that I was able to move my fingers again was a newly acquired skill. I started to work on projects that constantly kept my fingers working. The first artwork from my new life was called ‘Body and Soul’ (1989) and was my first installation art. In the project, I used UV light, to introduce the many souls I had encountered at the doorsteps of death. I wanted my small existence to be known and came up with a 10 meter installation work, The ‘Waiting Soul’ (1994) followed by ‘Umbilical Cord’ (1994), The ‘Lost Embryo’ (1999), all to express life.
Thread is like blood vessels to me.
Untangling of the thread on a reel and dream-like images seen under the darkened UV light speak of my life. Amongst critics who ridiculed my works as a rendezvous of plastic pieces and fluorescence underneath a disco light, I persisted my storytelling.
Time will tell. I was asked to do an exhibition in Berlin, Germany in the first group exhibition of artists from all over the world who use black lights, called Backlight Gallery in Berlin. As I was preparing for my exhibition there, I learned that the venue was at the very place of separation between East and West Germany.
The exhibition place evoked the deep tacit family history, that of my father who had left his 4 children in North Korea during the mayhem of war. I have 4 step siblings who are still there to this day. I thought about all the other families with the similar pain and my next work was a house, a home, called ‘Living Together’.
I visited the site of Potsdam Conference which led to the separation of South and North Korea. I have installed New Potsdam Conference, to call for a new conference for unification. My family story is the story of many Koreans and so I have put the names of the 5000 families pained by this unsolicited separation in my work called Vanished Berlin Wall. Just wishing. Wishing.
In 2010, my father passed away without ever having heard of his children in the north. In my next exhibition, I made an installation at DMZ that included all the vowels and consonants of the names of separated families, to appease my father’s wounded soul.
I started looking deeper within. Hurt from the loved ones doesn’t always start with something as grandiose as war. It can start with a simple misunderstanding, but the pain is as real and as damaging, if not more. Although close in proximity, there are many families who are cut off from one another and so I installed ‘Chair of Understanding,’ a big chair and a bench in one of the busiest cities in Asia, Hong Kong.
To me, Yarn is the thread that connects what has been separated, for a more hopeful tomorrow.
I sincerely desire that my work with yarn may send a message of comfort, of understanding, and of peace.
I was working with paraffin which overheated and 40% of my body was burned.
After graduating from a woman’s university and majoring in embroidery, I had always dreamed of being married, being the best wife and a mother and of working on my art. It had only been a year, after giving birth to my two children, that I was finally living the life that I had dreamed of, reconnecting with the artist within me.
A year, and my whole body was burned and I was looking at death, face to face. I changed.
Is there an afterlife? Was there a life before this? Why was I here? Are these worlds connected?
My children can continue their life, live and grow even after I die, but my work stops the moment I stop living. This led me to constantly think and worry about my work which is completely dependent on me.
The doctors told me that I would not be able to use my right hand. Forever. In those hours of despair, all I could do was pray.
Then one day, I met Jesus in my dream and He sent 5 bright rays of light onto my fingers. I decided not to believe in the doctors and underwent 8 surgeries and 3 years of rehabilitation. Every living moment was agony, but slowly, my fingers started to move. Although still numb, they were moving and the doctors told me it was a miracle.
The fact that I was able to move my fingers again was a newly acquired skill. I started to work on projects that constantly kept my fingers working. The first artwork from my new life was called ‘Body and Soul’ (1989) and was my first installation art. In the project, I used UV light, to introduce the many souls I had encountered at the doorsteps of death. I wanted my small existence to be known and came up with a 10 meter installation work, The ‘Waiting Soul’ (1994) followed by ‘Umbilical Cord’ (1994), The ‘Lost Embryo’ (1999), all to express life.
Thread is like blood vessels to me.
Untangling of the thread on a reel and dream-like images seen under the darkened UV light speak of my life. Amongst critics who ridiculed my works as a rendezvous of plastic pieces and fluorescence underneath a disco light, I persisted my storytelling.
Time will tell. I was asked to do an exhibition in Berlin, Germany in the first group exhibition of artists from all over the world who use black lights, called Backlight Gallery in Berlin. As I was preparing for my exhibition there, I learned that the venue was at the very place of separation between East and West Germany.
The exhibition place evoked the deep tacit family history, that of my father who had left his 4 children in North Korea during the mayhem of war. I have 4 step siblings who are still there to this day. I thought about all the other families with the similar pain and my next work was a house, a home, called ‘Living Together’.
I visited the site of Potsdam Conference which led to the separation of South and North Korea. I have installed New Potsdam Conference, to call for a new conference for unification. My family story is the story of many Koreans and so I have put the names of the 5000 families pained by this unsolicited separation in my work called Vanished Berlin Wall. Just wishing. Wishing.
In 2010, my father passed away without ever having heard of his children in the north. In my next exhibition, I made an installation at DMZ that included all the vowels and consonants of the names of separated families, to appease my father’s wounded soul.
I started looking deeper within. Hurt from the loved ones doesn’t always start with something as grandiose as war. It can start with a simple misunderstanding, but the pain is as real and as damaging, if not more. Although close in proximity, there are many families who are cut off from one another and so I installed ‘Chair of Understanding,’ a big chair and a bench in one of the busiest cities in Asia, Hong Kong.
To me, Yarn is the thread that connects what has been separated, for a more hopeful tomorrow.
I sincerely desire that my work with yarn may send a message of comfort, of understanding, and of peace.
My work began with textile arts but has expanded to installations, mainly incorporating diverse media such as fiber, polyester, and black lighting. While preparing for my first exhibit in 1986, I sustained extensive skin burns on my face and body after an explosion of hot paraffin, the medium I was using. Despite the tortuous rehabilitation, I could not stop creating my art and representations of life force. Thin fluorescent threads pass every corner of my artwork, such as Umbilical Cords, Lost Embryo and Life.
After I relocated to Germany, my longing for human relations led me to create the installation work Vanished Berlin Wall in 2007 at the Brandenburg Gate—a symbol of German reunification. This illuminated piece included the names of 5,000 Korean separated family members and drew the attention of major media outlets including the BBC, Reuters, and CNN. Without any social network or German language proficiency, this installation was realized and inspired through my artistic desire and direction. |