The exhibit opens with a reception from 5–7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 23 and continues through July 23. The reception includes a gallery talk from 7–7:30 p.m. Gallery hours are Mondays–Thursdays, 11 a.m.–7 p.m. and Fridays–Saturdays, 11 a.m.–4 p.m. The gallery is located in the Library and Learning Center, 645 East Seventh Street, at the University's Saint Paul Campus. This activity is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board and Career Development Grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council.
reception: Thursday, April 23, 5 p.m. – 7:30 p.m,
gallery talk by the artist from 7 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
show dates: April 24 – July 23, 2015
This exhibition features the art of Eun-Kyung Suh who honors and memorializes the extreme diasporic experiences of Korean “Comfort Women” during World War II. Using silk organza, Suh creates boxes printed with photographic images of the victims and their journal entries. Silk boxes—hold the stories told decades after their enslavement—give agency to “Comfort Women” and represent safe containers for personal memories.
Suh’s work draws on the history of World War II, during which 200,000 young women were recruited to work in factories and instead forced into sexual slavery in Japan's military brothels in Asia. In the 1990s, the first South Korean woman came forward and requested a formal apology from the Japanese government and compensation for the thousands of victims. Today, only about 50 of the 239 women who publicly acknowledged their experiences are alive in South Korea. Suh incorporates portraits of the survivors and their testimonies into silk organza boxes to express symbolic sympathy for their suffering.
Regarding the exhibition, guest curator Margaret Miller, Minneapolis, said, “Eun-Kyung Suh’s precise construction of delicate silk boxes invite you to draw close and for an intimate view of these women’s lives. Their words floating on the surface of the translucent vessels hold them suspended in time waiting to be heard. Their tragic stories pull at your heart, making it impossible to leave untouched.”
http://www.metrostate.edu/msweb/explore/cas/departments/cwa/gallery/