Gak-si
The project, Gak-Si, is a portrait of my mother. “Gak-Si” means wife in Korean. It was a term used for the role of “wife” in late thirteen hundreds to eighteen hundreds. Two significant cultural elements “Gak Si Tal” and “Han Bok” are embedded in the drawing. “Gak Si Tal” is a Korean mask that was worn in traditional wedding or in special family events. The mask is a unique symbol that embodies the significance of tradition while allowing it to express self-expression and liberation. “Han Bok” is a traditional Korean dress for formal attire during special occasions such as weddings, rituals, and ceremonies. I expressed this project with yarns because hand knitting is one of the most important abilities that “women” should have. Personally, I learned hand knitting from my mother, and I have really enjoyed hand knitting. When portraying my mother, I thought it’s good to portray her with yarns because knitting is one valuable thing that I have learned from my mother and I will never forget. In addition, hand knitting was one of the most essential symbols that represents women hood in an old Korean culture. In fact, from generation to generation, there are many artworks that are done with yarns in Asia.
In researching the final form, I came across the work of Tammy Kanat, Australian artist, and Janet Echelman, an American sculptor. Kanat’s large scale wall wool, linen, silk, copper frame, and fibers weaving in to vary in thickness to create and undulating weave, which inspired my process. Echelman’s building scale fabric works drape between large buildings interrupts the city with forty foot hand craft at an architectural scale, several stories tall incorporate ancient craft with computational design software to create works that defines urban life on big cities. I chose canvas as my substrate with a dimension of five by eight foot because I wanted viewer to be overwhelmed or surrounded by my piece. The piece hangs eight feet above the ground floor and the viewer has to look up to view it. The color palette of background, skin tone, and hair color is mostly pastel and earth tone. Multiple skills of working with hands was required and I spent a lot of time working with multiple thickness of thread. Weaving and hand knitting yarn for one another would be the main movement that I learned from my mother and made it. The work has two big parts where top half of the work is mostly hand knitted yarn and the bottom half are two types of fabric, which is childhood blanket and fabric that has pattern of traditional “Han Bok” hand sewed on the canvas.
In portraying the generosity of perpetual love and sacrifice, I drew my mother holding a baby, who is holding a mask of Gak-Si, symbolizing a married woman. In other word, a mother holding a child holding a wife. It represents the cycle of passing roles among women from generation to generation. I also used a similar background to a famous art piece “Mona Lisa” in order to portray my mother’s feelings, neither smiling nor frowning. Mixed emotions, mischievous but loving, can best represent motherhood.
In researching the final form, I came across the work of Tammy Kanat, Australian artist, and Janet Echelman, an American sculptor. Kanat’s large scale wall wool, linen, silk, copper frame, and fibers weaving in to vary in thickness to create and undulating weave, which inspired my process. Echelman’s building scale fabric works drape between large buildings interrupts the city with forty foot hand craft at an architectural scale, several stories tall incorporate ancient craft with computational design software to create works that defines urban life on big cities. I chose canvas as my substrate with a dimension of five by eight foot because I wanted viewer to be overwhelmed or surrounded by my piece. The piece hangs eight feet above the ground floor and the viewer has to look up to view it. The color palette of background, skin tone, and hair color is mostly pastel and earth tone. Multiple skills of working with hands was required and I spent a lot of time working with multiple thickness of thread. Weaving and hand knitting yarn for one another would be the main movement that I learned from my mother and made it. The work has two big parts where top half of the work is mostly hand knitted yarn and the bottom half are two types of fabric, which is childhood blanket and fabric that has pattern of traditional “Han Bok” hand sewed on the canvas.
In portraying the generosity of perpetual love and sacrifice, I drew my mother holding a baby, who is holding a mask of Gak-Si, symbolizing a married woman. In other word, a mother holding a child holding a wife. It represents the cycle of passing roles among women from generation to generation. I also used a similar background to a famous art piece “Mona Lisa” in order to portray my mother’s feelings, neither smiling nor frowning. Mixed emotions, mischievous but loving, can best represent motherhood.