Through exploration and reflection of personal experiences, I have tried to identify cultural differences between South Korea and the UK, predominantly within language, whilst learning Korean, I recognised cultural barriers that made practising harder than necessary, especially in Seoul - when I spoke Korean to strangers, they didn't immediately understand me because of their assumption that I would speak English. I found it really hard to accept that people wouldn't understand their own language. At first I became more self-conscious, doubting my own proficiency, although during communication with friends and acquaintances, they reassured me that it wasn't my ability but other people’s perceptions that could be narrowed by my appearance.

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Translating Images

I used various methods in constructing complex visuals. Working from photographs and film stills, I worked with methods such as drawing, painting and post production through the use of digital manipulation software. I also worked with tracing paper, pulling together multiple images to construct a new narrative. 

I experimented with the removal of identity through digital collage. Working from photographs of myself that had been taken by others. I wanted to change my visual aesthetic to embody an aspect of Korean-ness, to project how a change in my appearance could change others perceptions in how I would communicate with them.

“Seoul is a very crowded city, Suh, D.H 2008)” I approached this idea of confusion; I worked with the photocopier and scanner to overlay compositions of Korean stickers. Placed into set formations, that addressed the idea of being overwhelmed by dense repetition and linked to the repetitive task of memorisation within language learning.  

I wanted to explore how complex mark making could depict the situation in which I struggled to fully understand or have the ability to control, I utilized Photoshop and the use of layers to magnify this ungraspable seam, of where overlaying images started and ended. 

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Woven Translations

Weaving has been translated as two methods within my practice, firstly in response to visual studies; I developed patterns that contained Hanguel - Korean written language combining this with repetition. This idea stemmed from the process of memorisation, where I had to continuously write out the characters.

The secondary approach explored metaphoric qualities of cloth, I began to consider the relationship between the warp and the weft, represented as two separate beings either joined together to construct seamless woven cloth or as disjointed floats depicting a failure to communicate or interact with one another, forced to co-exist alongside each other.