Her Room ; 

Her Room (The Woman Story 5)

Her Room ; The People 15 ? An Boon Sun 2007

ins tallation 2007 with <People 15 - An, Boon-sun>. cotton, cotton cloth.

An Boon-Sun.

I am not sure her name was An Boon-Sun. At that time in Korea people didn’t call women by their names.  So that means that they might have called her by the name of the place she was coming from or by her child’s name, if she was a mother, or by some other characteristic that made up her identity and gave her a role in the society she lived in.

Fist time I met her in 1998, through a picture. My grandfather pointed her to me.  She was holding a baby in her arms.  Standing on the last raw, on the left corner among her relatives; mothers, husbands, children, grandfathers, etc.

That day when I first saw her my grandfather told me that she was his first wife and the baby in her arms was my father.  I didn’t know her till that day.  Also at that day I was told that she had passed away when she was 21 years old, just a couple of years after giving birth to my father and my grandfather remarried sometime after her death.

My grandfather was 87 years old, when he asked me, “Is it possible to print just this part of the picture so I can see her face once again?”  I did print it out for him.  Then I went back to my studio and tried to draw her face; hoping to awake her memory in my own self, perhaps capture some part of her with my drawing.

For the installation:

I built a small room for her.  I used cotton because it’s soft and doesn’t separate the space in any harsh way; light goes through it, you can still look inside but of course it’s not so clear, it’s not totally transparent anymore.  If you want to see her, you will have to take the narrow pathway between the cotton, walk along the path and perhaps be able to meet her along the way.  When you are inside the path, if your eyes happen to cross the eyes of the people outside, you will feel that you are viewed as part of her; by taken the path you allow yourself to become part of herself and naturally herself becomes part of you.

While in your walk hopefully you’ll be able to feel the softness of space, the weightless memories, the timeless light.  The whole image, including you, looks like a fainted memory to the outsider. 

She is a woman, a piece of natural cotton, a ghost, Buddha, a Jesus, a part of you.

Translated by  Kiki Denis (writer NYC. USA.)

People 15 - 안 분 선
 목화 솜과 광목에 무명실로 바느질, 260*110*18cm, 2006

그녀는 내가 만나보지 못하고 만든 유일한 사람이다. ‘안 분 선’, 그녀가 생전 실제로 그렇게 불렸을 지는 의문이다.
내가 그녀를 처음 만난 건 8년 전 사진 속에서 이다. 할아버지는 사진을 한 장(도 20) 꺼내시더니
사진 속에서 왼쪽 뒷줄 끝에서 아이를 안고 있는 여인을 두 번째 손가락으로 가리키면서 그녀가 나의 아버지의 생모이며
그녀가 안고 있는 너무나 어린 아이가 나의 아버지임을 말해주었다.
 할아버지는 노환으로 눈이 어두워져 더 이상 그녀의 얼굴을 볼 수 없다며 그 사진의 그녀 부분만 확대해 달라고 부탁하셨다.
그녀는 나의 아버지를 낳고 얼마 지나지 않아 20세 정도의 나이에 돌아가셨다고 한다. 그녀의 사진 속 모습이라도 다시 보고 싶어
 희미한 그녀의 얼굴을 확대해 달라고 부탁하시는 할아버지의 기억 속의 그녀, 너무 어릴 때 헤어져
그녀에 대한 기억이 거의 희미하지만 매년 그녀의 제사를 지내며 그녀를 기억 하려 하는 아버지의 기억 속의 그녀,
한 번도 만난 적은 없지만 사진을 받아 들고 한참 동안 그녀를 생각하고 그녀를 드로잉 한 나의 기억 속의 그녀를 표현하려 하였다.