ARTIST'S STATEMENT

Central Question

How can clothing be used as a form of advocation and information?

Literature

The Hanbok is a traditional form of Korean clothing and can be seen worn by the Statue of Peace (2020). This form of Hanbok seen on the Statue is my main inspiration behind the design of my project. As the Hanbok has been such a deep-rooted part of Korean culture and was the main style of clothing in the past, I wanted to create it as a way of tying my project to Korean culture. Through my project I want to address the traumatizing events that Comfort Women went through which can be read about in Soh's (2008) reading and how that has impacted their mental and physical health. Many Comfort Women have and continue to suffer from mental health disorders such as major depressive disorder and post traumatic stress disorder (Lee, J., et al., 2018). In addition, they suffer greatly physically and emotionally and the lasting consequences have persevered through their family relations, their inability to marry and conceive children, and more (Park, J., et al., 2016). I wish to inform others of these issues and convey my support for those who have suffered through creating the garment and the use of symbolism in that garment. 

Methods

I looked at past research to inform my background on the mental health and physical effects that Comfort Women experience and looked at literature and films involving narrative from Comfort Women to inform my background on the experiences they went through, how they personally felt, etc. I also conducted interviews with my family members to see if the topic of Comfort Women was something that they were not allowed to learn about back when my mother was in school and it seems that it was a topic that they did not learn about in school and was not widely talked about as well. After this I then began to create the garment using a sewing machine, muslin, embroidery needles and embroidery thread. The sewing machine and muslin was to create the main garment and the embroidery needle and thread was used to add the design onto the garment although I was not able to add the design onto the garment yet. 

Audience & Impact

The audience for my project is generally Americans as the American general education when it comes to history teaches mainly about American History and Eurocentric History. Therefore, many people who grew up in America with their education curriculum may not know about "Comfort Women". So I would like to spread information about "Comfort Women" to my audience and advocate for the support of the mental health and physical health of "Comfort Women" and against sexual slavery. I hope that my audience will come away knowing more about "Comfort Women" and want to learn more while wanting to also provide support for "Comfort Women" and against Sexual Slavery.I have learned even more about "Comfort Women" than I had before and I learned just how much time and effort goes into a project of such as large scale. I think I have grown to be more diligent in managing my time and pacing along with learning how to curate a project into a site.

​

References

​

Lee, J., Kwak, Y., Kim, Y., Kim, E., Park, E., Shin, Y., Lee, B., Lee, S., Jung, H., Lee, I., Hwang, J., Kim, D., & Lee, S. I. (2018). Psychiatric Sequelae of Former “Comfort Women,” Survivors of the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery during World War II. Psychiatry Investigation, 15(4), 336-343. 

​

Park, J., Lee, K., Hand, M. D., Anderson, K. A., & Schleitwiler, T. E. (2016). Korean Survivors of the Japanese “Comfort Women” System: Understanding the Lifelong Consequences of Early Life Trauma. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 59(4), 332-348. 

​

Soh, S. C. (2008). The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan. Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press. 

Statue of Peace (2020, December 5). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Peace

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Heather and Harold for their support, my mother for helping me make the garment and keeping me on track, and my friend Jojo for taking the pictures of the final garment on me.