The red thread works project applies an improvisational embroidery approach and draws on traditional Korean tropes of In-Yeon and the red-string-of-fate. These tropes are explored to portray a multifaceted interpretation of female identity. And illustrate how emotions and lived experiences in contemporary society continue to be shaped by socio, cultural and historical legacies across time and place.

This emerging body of work is inspired by an early scene in the first episode of the Korean drama My Dearest (1923)—where, in a dream the heroine Gil-Chae follows a spool of red embroidery thread along a winding road—passing through seasonal landscapes until she arrives at a beach where Jang Hyun, the hero, picks up the red thread. For me this portrays not only the notion of a joined fate, but more importantly it illustrates the epic length of a life’s journey. A life that traverses across multiple landscapes and the importance of interconnecting, tangled relationships with the people we meet along the way.

White wedding… a departure from what has gone before

…remove the patriarchs’ designs

unfasten their blood stained ties

on our conditioned bodies…