Jewyo Rhii, a leading contemporary artist from South Korea, shares her experiences growing up amid political unrest in the 1980s, including the Gwangju Uprising. Her sense of misplacement since childhood pushed her towards artistry as a means of expressing her feelings and coping with societal disorder. After studying art in New York, Rhii's work matured, emphasizing themes of survival and neglect through the use of ephemeral materials. This evolution highlights the intersection of personal and political narratives in her art, reflective of her generation's unique challenges and possibilities.
The 1980s were marked by widespread protests, including the violently suppressed student-led Gwangju Uprising, and the end of the decade saw the first signs of the authoritarian rule's collapse.
For Rhii, art was a way to understand her feeling of misplacement and the constant state of disorder that left her longing to leave South Korea.
In high school, our bus often had to drive through protests; when I'd get to school, it was hard to sit down and paint with so much happening.
The focus of her art strengthened as she grappled with her new understanding of the world, assembling ephemeral materials and found objects into installations.
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