A Fish out of Water
2018
45" x 110"
Silk, hand sewn
Displayed in the exhibition,
Ewha Textile Exhibition, Ewha Art Center, Seoul, Korea (2022)
Dwelling in Between, The Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in San Francisco, San Francisco CA (2018)




"I began making fish using traditional Korean wrapping cloth (Jogakbo) technique after encountering a wooden fish hanging in Magok temple in the city of Gongju long ago. The wooden fish in a Budist temple with open eyes even while sleeping symbolizes constant devotion to the Budist faith. Out of the sea and hanging in the eave of a temple deep in a mountain, the wooden fish left a great impression on me; I feel empathy and respectful for the symbolism of the fish. The fish that embraces days and nights as well as sea and land applies to my own situations as an immigrant. Therefore, I wanted to express the complex symbolism of the fish in silk with the traditional technique used in making Jogakbo.
'Fish out of Water' is composed of two fish bodies, representing the dual identity or hybrid nature of the two different realms of birth place and unfamiliar new place."
