Habitat

2022 ~ ongoing

Various sizes

Silk, old ramie, silk threads, hand sewn

Ongoing project from the year of 2022

Displayed in the exhibition, 식구 SIKGU , Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA (2023)

"I collect loose threads and fragments of cloth generated in the process of making and construct small houses from them. Materials that might otherwise be discarded are carefully stitched together, accumulating into structures that take on their own distinct forms of dwelling.

These houses are not simple architectural models. They are condensed units of time, labor, memory, and relationships—fragile yet persistent entities that lean toward one another and gather into a larger constellation. Individually vulnerable and incomplete, they form a landscape and a sense of community only through their coexistence.

The outer surfaces of these houses are made of translucent fabric. Inside, I place the remnants produced during the making process—scraps of thread and textile fragments that are not discarded but carefully preserved. These traces become visible through the semi-transparent walls, faintly revealed rather than hidden. They are not mere byproducts, but accumulations of time, residues of labor, and carriers of memory and lived experience. Just as the homes we inhabit hold countless stories and layers of life, these small houses also preserve their own internal temporalities.

I intentionally construct these dwellings using one of the most fragile materials—textile. A house is conventionally understood as a structure of protection, stability, and permanence. Yet contemporary life is marked by continuous displacement, uncertainty, and fragility. War, migration, economic instability, and climate crisis constantly destabilize the notion of a secure dwelling. In this context, the textile house reveals not only human vulnerability, but also the possibility of continual repair, stitching, and reconnection. Fragility is not simply a lack of strength; it is also a condition through which life persists through care and relational support.

Having experienced migration in midlife, I understand home not as a fixed location but as an ongoing process of making and remaking. Leaving familiar surroundings and entering new social environments revealed to me how deeply human existence depends on relations and connections with others.

Habitat is an allegory of a fragile shared dwelling created collectively by human beings. Just as scraps come together to form a single piece of cloth, people with different histories, memories, cultures, and experiences construct spaces of coexistence through connection and collaboration. The fragments contained within each house serve as reminders of the individual memories and lived experiences that constitute this collective structure.

This work does not propose an idealized or stable utopia. Rather, it speaks to the human will to remain connected and caring even within conditions of instability and fragmentation."

Habitat is an ongoing project that began in 2022.