Inok Kalkwarf's Performance Portfolio

My installations are based upon my memories and upon cultural symbols which represent important aspects of my life. It is my hope that people will take the experience I put into an installation and relate it to their own lives. All of the installation work is hand-sewn because I want to recreate the cultural meaning behind the finished form. The act of creation then becomes a part of the creation itself. It is a way for me to meditate on the cultural symbols and their meaning in our lives.

 

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For this installation in December of 2007, I took some of the sculptures from other works and combined them with new work to emphasize the thesis of how culture can be used to subjugate women. Again, I use traditional women’s materials such as paper Mache, thread, fabric, and ink and I combine them with the natural materials such as dried plants, chestnut shells, charcoal, and grains. One of the traditional style scrolls has the Confucian instructions for women to mind their place and obey their husbands as well as the instructions for children to obey and honor their parents. I used the Chinese (in Korean we say, “hancha”) writing to emphasize the effect of tradition and the thousands of years of history which affects our cultural outlook on women’s rolls. The second scroll is a poem for my mother which demonstrates the tradition of quiet self-sacrifice that has shaped the roll of women in Korean society. The clothing and shoes are made from open, unwoven threads which demonstrate how people who quietly sacrifice so much are often transparent in the world, and pass away leaving only a beautiful memory rather than some monument to their accomplishments.

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