Ke-Sook Lee
Pricked: Extreme Embroidery
International group exhibition
Catalog essay by David Revere McFadden,
Chief Curator Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY
November 2007
Ke-Sook Lee drew upon personal and family memories when she
created one Hundred Faceless Women. In this case her narrative memories take
on a universal significance as commentary on the role of women in the domestic
arena. Each handkerchief in the work has been embroidered with a motif or symbol
that expresses a personal vision: “I draw personal symbols and transfigured
women from my experiences of womanhood as an artist.”
The relationship between needle work practices and feminism has been explored
by many embroiderers over the past decades.
Ke-Sook’s form of mark making
using thread continues that exploration by recording non-text-based imagery
that speaks of the concerns, dreams and fears of past generations of women
in Korea, and particularly illiterate women. “Like most of women of
their generation, my grandmother and great grandmother did not know how to
read or write but they did know how to express their impassioned thoughts
through embroidery with patience. My work is influenced by their graceful
endurance and their creativity to transform their thoughts into beautiful
embroidery,”
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