Communication Associate: Public Relations | Lori Melton | lmelton@d.umn.edu | (218) 726-8830
September 28, 2011 Cheryl Reitan | Interim director | UMD Public Relations and Marketing | 218 726-8996 | creitan@d.umn.edu
Eun-Kyung Suh | Associate professo | UMD Department of Art and Design | 218 726-7450 | esuh@d.umn.edu
Weisman Art Museum Invites Eun-Kyung Suh to Create Exhibit
Eun-Kyung Suh
"Sympathies-Anchae"
Eun-Kyung Suh, UMD associate professor in the Department of Art and Design, was invited by the Weisman Art Museum (WAM) in Minneapolis to display her exhibit, "Sympathies-Anchae." Beginning October 2, 2011 with a reception from 1-6 p.m., the exhibit will be displayed through May 20, 2012. The artist talk is scheduled for Wednesday, February 29, 2012.
Korean-born and Duluth-based, Suh created the art exhibit with the museum's traditional Korean furniture collection.
"I combined inspiration from the collection. I researched into the Twin Cities, Duluth, and the Hawaiian-Korean immigrant communities," said Suh. "I chose two objects to display as part of the gallery-sized installation. A kitchen cabinet from the nineteenth century and an enclosed wedding 'gama'—a human-powered carrier to convey people. My fabric-based sculptural practice helped me create 'anchae', a Korean word that describes the women's quarters of a traditional Korean home."
Suh transferred borrowed Korean immigrants' family photographs to hundreds of yards of silk from Korea. She designed an environment that recalls a processional space and a domestic interior. The exhibit signifies that marriage is the start of a traditional Korean woman's adult life, as well as the important aspect of her domain, the kitchen.
Visitors pass through the enclosed silk spaces and view the images on silk walls that depict Korean immigrants at different stages in life. The curtained walls are defined by geometric configurations in which Suh pieced together different colored silk portions. The patterns echo the façade design of Korean furniture.
"The silk spaces suggest both the constants and the fluctuations experienced by immigrants," said Suh. "The installation not only commemorates the Korean immigrants, but it also brings us closer to its details. It asks us to ponder our own life-ways and passages."
Eun-Kyung Suh
"Sympathies-Anchae"
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