The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art exhibition catalogue (APT2)

Although Yun Suk-Nam devoted herself to becoming a professional artist without the baptism of an institutional art education, she is representative of the female artists who have catalysed and formalised discussions on female art in South Korean society. She tells the harsh history of women through the image of the 'mother' which is both a general image of womanhood and a personal matter for the artist. Yun Suk-Nam's work is an elegy for all mothers who were made to accept obedience as a virtue by Confucian society, and who had to endure the labour of life. It is also a hymn to the mothers who despite the hardship survived with great strength and did not lose dignity. It was not until after the mid-1980s that discussion of feminist art gained a wider forum in South Korea. This parallelled the 1980s social commentary minjung art movement in dealing with fundamental human rights issues. However, deep-rooted patriarchal attitudes exist within the progressive art circle as well as within society generally, consequently, feminist art has been considered an inferior and peripheral art. Yun Suk-Nam overcomes the double oppression of being both a woman and an artist by successfully fusing the themes of her work with an epistemo– logical approach to her work process that is based on her memories and her life. The artist paints on and engraves the aged and battered pieces of wood found in her surroundings. Her choice of this very manual method of production legitimates the sculptural language which has been neglected because it has been seen as unprofessional. YUN Suk-Nam Lives and works in Seoul, South Korea Her pinks 1996 Installation comprising wood figure, used chair, sofa,steel nails,white and pink plastic beads Previous works, in which the artist looks back at the past from the eyes of a mother, are taken one step further in the piece exhibited in the Second Asia– Pacific Triennial. In this installation, characterised by the inclusion of a chair, Yun Suk-Nam explores women's issues as a subject based on her present experience. The chair, a subject which has interested the artist since early 1995, is used here as a tool to suggest the women who are both psychologically and physically insecure. The cushioning, curves and luxurious colours refer to the identity of middle class middle-aged women. This brilliantly coloured work expresses women's hopes and their desire to escape from a society that demoralises rather than accepts them. Soyeon Ahn,Curator,National Museum of Contemporary Art,Seoul, South Korea ARTISTS : EAST ASIA I 77