Ke-Sook Lee
One-Hundred Faceless Women
Press essay by Tamar Holton-Hinshow
George Billis Gallery, New York, NY, April, 2007

Ke-Sook Lee's Installation,"One Hundred Faceless Women," is inspired by personal memories and experiences, yet comments on universal issues of domesticity and feminism. The work, which features one hundred embroidered handkerchiefs hung on lines through the gallery, was inspired by the artist's memory of hanging laundry on a clothesline one Sunny day. Each vintage handkerchief is embroidered or crocheted with symbols from Lee's life. The artists states, "I draw personal symbols and transfigured women from my own experiences of womanhood as an artist."

By incorporating scenes from domestic life into her art, Lee explores the many roles that women inhabit. She acknowledges women as mothers and daughters and wives, as well as artists. Her use of traditionally feminine mediums, such as thread, as mark-marking device is a reference to women of past generations, who may have been illiterate. "like most of women of their generation, my grandmother and great grandmother did not know how to read and write, but they did know how to express their impassioned thoughts through embroidery with patience. My work is influenced by their graceful endurance with given life and their creativity to transform their thoughts into beautiful embroidery."