Kyungah Ham
Kyungah Ham | South Korea b.1966 | Nagasaki Mushroom Cloud, Hiroshima Mushroom Cloud 2008 | Hand embroidery on silk | Diptych: (a) 120 x 150cm; (b) 120 x 150cm | Sigg Collection, Switzerland | Image courtesy: The artist and Kukje Gallery, Seoul
b.1966 Seoul, South Korea
Lives and works in Seoul, South Korea
Kyungah Ham works across installation, video, performance and traditional media. Her recent works include blue-and-white porcelain sculptures of weaponry and Persian carpets traced in oil, critically exploring the dynamics of war. Her textile project, featured in APT6, was begun in 2008 as a means to communicate with North Koreans about such issues, which continue to influence the everyday lives of people on both sides of the border. To make the works, Ham collects images and articles on terrorism and violence from the print media and the internet, which are then edited and sent to female artisans in North Korea (via China) to be embroidered, using traditional techniques, into textiles. In doing so, Ham enacts a dialogue that extends across the barriers of ideology and physical distance that mark South Korean relations with its northern neighbour. Given the risk of censorship and confiscation, the images and embroideries are often transmitted in parts, to be reconfigured by the artist as the final work. Ham’s tapestry compositions reflect both historical and contemporary episodes of conflict, and construct a strange and compelling mixture of propaganda, social activism and personal memory.
Exhibitions (solo): Ssamzie Space, Seoul, South Korea, 2008. Exhibitions (group): ‘Correspondence’, Artsonje Center, Seoul, South Korea, 2008; Gwangju Biennale, South Korea, 2006; Yokohama Triennale, Japan, 2001.
