Enter, Son (2023)
Materials
Silver gelatin print, dried red pepper, charcoal, hanji (mulberry paper), rice straw string
Dimensions
8 x 10 feet
Skills
Darkroom photography, film developing
"Enter, Son" is a mixed media installation that explores cultural practices of celebration and marginalization through traditional Korean elements. The work features photograms of Korean masks worn during shamanistic ceremonies, symbolizing voices that could only surface through an uncanny, supernatural mediary. These masks transcend their symbolic origins, becoming corporeal entities—touched, cut, stretched, and transformed into a living corpus that breaks free from representational constraints.
Excavated from their symbolic significance, these physical "beings" are positioned behind a Geumjul (禁) - a sacred straw rope traditionally hung at the entrance of a home to celebrate the birth of a son. Unlike the newborn son born into familial honor and promise of inherited lineage, these beings are activated by deeper, more complex narratives of struggle, desire, and unspoken frustration.
The installation critically examines historical rituals by positioning these marginalized entities behind a shamanistic boundary marker that never truly protected them. Adorned with dried red pepper and charcoal, the Geumjul becomes a provocative symbol that highlights the gendered and selective nature of cultural celebration. “Enter, Son” draws urgent attention to the unacknowledged and unprotected existences that have been systematically erased from prescribed social narratives.
부제: 가면을 쓰고 돌아온 딸들