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Remember 0416
2018 - 2022, 304 handkerchieves hand-dyed with turmeric installation on wall
Remember 0416 is an homage installation to the Danwon high school student victims of the Sewol ferry sinking incident in South Korea. With the wish to deliver and remember this tragedy’s traces in a way that is neither too dreadful nor too light, Kim fills the entire room yellow. To remember the 304 students who lost their lives and the tragic lesson this incident has left behind, Kim fills the room with the corresponding number of handkerchiefs, which we usually carry close to our bodies. The early development of this work began in 2015 when she asked her fellow Walnut Hill students to tie yellow ribbons on a tree between Eliot and Stowe buildings. The project developed further and turned into an installation of 304 handkerchiefs. As the color yellow is associated with the Sewol ferry incident in Korea, she hand-dyed all the handkerchiefs yellow with turmeric and embroidered them with yellow thread. All the individuals adding up to the number 304 are expressed through the room filled with slightly different tones of yellow. The hand-dyed color yellow, just like the public’s emotions connected to the Sewol ferry incident, may fade away as time passes. However, the embroidery in the shape of the ferry’s last turn before it started sinking, like the lesson we learn from this incident, shall last forever. The time that goes into the hand-dying process corresponds to the time that she thinks people should take to remember the lives of Danwon students. On display, the viewer can see the individuality of every victim’s life from the different tones of yellow. Each handkerchief also has an embroidery on the bottom right, with a shape that mimics the route that Sewol ferry took just before it began sinking in the morning.
Remember 0416
May 2022, installation view at the Delbridge Family Center for the Arts, MA
155 pieces of hand-dyed and embroidered handkerchiefs installed on wall
installation view, details
Memory Struggle
“생물학적 죽음이 이루어질 당시에 우리가 할 수 있었던 것은 별거 없었다고 하더라도, 그 뒤에 남은 사회 구성원으로서의 두 번째 책무는 바로 올바른 기억을 찾아서 기록하고, 함께 공유하고, 주기적으로 회상하는 것입니다. 결국, 죽어라 온 힘을 다해서 기억하는 자에게 그 사회의 몫은 놓여 있는 것이고, 우리의 미래는 열려 있는 것이라고 하겠습니다.”
- 정준희 교수 해시태그 언박싱 기억투쟁의 과정 속 허탈한 ‘망각’ 중
Remember 0416
December 2018, installation at Paris College of Art, FR
one hundred handkerchieves hand-dyed with turmeric installation on wall
Remember 0416, 2018
detail of installation
Remember 0416, 2018
detail of installation
Homage to Danwon High School Students, 2016
Communal project at Walnut Hill School for the Arts