ritual rites
colored pencil on paper, gouache on wood panel 2018
Panthera tigris tigris is the national animal of South Korea, although most, if not all, have gone extinct due to extreme hunting practices during the Japanese Occupation and further Western urbanization of the Korean landscape. Since ancient times, the tiger has been the other, to be feared and ridiculed and worshipped through folk tale, theatre, and works of painting. The Korean tiger now only exists in the realm of imagination and fantasy; since the seventeenth century, the tiger has been a popular subject for Korean folk paintings called λ―Όν (minhwa). Traditionally, paintings of tigers were hung in homes to protect the family, thus as I hang my drawings in places I reside, the tiger can spatially exist in tandem with the ghost as a warrior that fights for acceptance and visibility. If the ghost feeds off of the negative consequences of existing in two places marginally, the tiger finds strength in having the power to do the same.
