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interdisciplinary critique

Spring 2004

Course #608

Na-Jung Kim

Emotions in Motion: Dualism in the Female Psyche

My art represents the dualism in the female psyche; vulnerability and safety and fragility and strength are expressed through pattern, repetition, ritual process, and an invitation to emotional involvement. The female nude and the lotus are my basic subject matter for expressing the human capacity to participate in varied emotional stat
The representation of this dualism of the female psyche is enabled by cloth as material Cloth can mediate between the hidden and the revealed, like a veil through which one passes from vulnerability to safety, just as the human skin is a boundary between the inner and outer body.
I have two types of works. The first work is a circular installation of images burned into silk organza with incense, which is a traditional process, and done by hand. I use incense sticks as a unique tool in my works. With this technique, I create repetitive patterns of holes in a ritual process that builds imagery of the female nude and the lotus.
The other work is computer wallpapers, which are generated mechanically and represents a new technique for creating pattern, ritual, and repetition. However, these designs are derived from hand painting, but U4ia, a computer-generated textile program, makes the patterns and Photoshop builds the layers of patterns.
The dichotomies embodied in the two types of works–protected and unprotected, concealed and revealed, internal and external–are expressions of the dualism that I identify in the female psyche; the purpose of this juxtaposition is to invite the viewer to collapse these apparent dichotomies. However, this approach still allows individual viewers to recognize the distinctions embodied by the techniques, and to discover a complement between the elements of the female psyche that the techniques are intended to express.

© 2023 by Laurie Beth Clark

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