_biennale

1

In the patriarchal society of South Korea following the 1940s and 1950s, gender roles were strictly defined. Women,now grandmothers, have been reduced to various labels that obscure their individuality. They are called daughters,daughters-in-law, family members, mothers, and so on.

These labels dictated their roles, making sacrifices for their families seem like a given. As a result, they have lived as strangers. Especially in the case of marriage, while men could continue living in their own villages and homes, women were often married off through arranged marriages (sometimes without even seeing their future husbands) and forced to move to their husbands' homes. This meant abruptly starting a life as a stranger, far from their own roots. This structure was even more pronounced in rural areas. Grandmothers who have lived as strangers still remain strangers in their own villages.

The village where Park Joohee grew up still maintains this structure. The grandmothers there continue to remain in the position of strangers and are hesitant to reveal their true selves. Society has imposed a passive and self-sacrificing role upon them, silencing their voices. The cement containers reveal the hidden labor of these grandmothers. Behind the served food on the dining table lies their labor. The tasks of fetching water, cooking, cleaning up after meals, and washing dishes are all concealed by the served food. The steel frame and cement symbolize the social structure that hides this labor. These two materials, which are strong and cold and represent progress, reveal and melt away when they encounter the labor of the grandmothers. The cement containers, with their holes and cracks, can no longer fulfill their function.

So, what creates these cracks in the structure? It is the relentless struggle of the grandmothers to transform their passive labor into active labor. When we look closely at the roles that were once deemed sacrifices, we find a great deal of agency and creativity in their labor. And what sustained their labor was their songs. For the grandmothers, songs were more than just music. They served as a substitute for their freedom and provided them with a breath of fresh air.

2

Park Joohee's work, Labor Container, intersects with Moon Seongjoo's work, How to Cross The River. Park Joohee focuses on the element of 'river' in Moon Moon Seongjoo's work. Moon Moon Seongjoo imagines the river as an unknown obstacle that must be overcome. He suggests various ways to cross the river, from simply crossing it to growing a tree and felling it to cross.Along with these methods, Moon Sung-ju mentions in his writing that the river might actually be nothing at all.

For the grandmothers, the river was also an important place. It was an essential living space and a place of labor. It was where they performed the roles and labor assigned to them by society. They washed clothes in the river rather than receiving an education in school, and they fetched water and washed dishes. Here, they formed a sense of solidarity.Their songs, interwoven between their labor, transformed their assigned tasks into their own.

Thus, Park Joohee's work, installed in the exhibition space, is no longer just a single piece of art. Just as the grandmothers formed a bond as strangers in the river, it connects the artworks in the exhibition space. The lyrics of the grandmothers' songs, encompassing the transparent image of the river and surrounding the walls, reveal a subtle yet enduring sense of solidarity.