Video
How to play the Traditional Gayageum
2019
<How to play the Traditional Gayageum>
Part 5 [representation-tradition]⠀
How do the norms governing women’s bodies reproduce traditional aesthetic values? <How to Play the Traditional Gayageum> focuses on the phenomenon of traditional beauty being reenacted through female performers. She is the body that reenacts the aesthetic values of tradition that must be preserved. The logic of patriarchy genderizes and hierarchically reproduces the dual mission of tradition.
1. Apply makeup neatly
2. Use gel to create a 5:5 part
3. Attach the side bun and insert a hairpin
4. Put on an underskirt, then put on the hanbok skirt and jacket
5. Oh, put on the traditional socks
6. Hold the gayageum so the front is visible, hold the skirt with your other hand, and enter the stage
7. Set down the gayageum and spread the skirt out in a circle
8. Straighten the sash
9. Bring your hands together with your right hand on top, count “one, two, three” as you lower them, then count “one, two, three” as you raise them
10. Hold the gayageum so the front is visible, hold the skirt with your other hand, and exit
☞ video
Conditions of Tradition (2019–20) was a research-based exhibition and performance project that examined how tradition is constructed and sustained in contemporary society. Rather than treating tradition as a fixed entity, the project approached it as a practice shaped by multiple historical, social, and institutional conditions, critically investigating the structures that produce and reproduce traditional arts.
My contribution focused on Representation-Tradition, exploring how the bodies of female performers function as sites through which traditional aesthetics and cultural norms are enacted and maintained. This research was presented through the exhibition work How to Play the Traditional Gayageum.
The project became an important starting point for my ongoing interest in the body, femininity, gisaeng culture, and the ways traditional arts are embodied, represented, and transmitted. These questions continue to inform my current research on Gyeonggi Japga.
Part 5 [representation-tradition]⠀
How do the norms governing women’s bodies reproduce traditional aesthetic values? <How to Play the Traditional Gayageum> focuses on the phenomenon of traditional beauty being reenacted through female performers. She is the body that reenacts the aesthetic values of tradition that must be preserved. The logic of patriarchy genderizes and hierarchically reproduces the dual mission of tradition.
1. Apply makeup neatly
2. Use gel to create a 5:5 part
3. Attach the side bun and insert a hairpin
4. Put on an underskirt, then put on the hanbok skirt and jacket
5. Oh, put on the traditional socks
6. Hold the gayageum so the front is visible, hold the skirt with your other hand, and enter the stage
7. Set down the gayageum and spread the skirt out in a circle
8. Straighten the sash
9. Bring your hands together with your right hand on top, count “one, two, three” as you lower them, then count “one, two, three” as you raise them
10. Hold the gayageum so the front is visible, hold the skirt with your other hand, and exit
☞ video
Conditions of Tradition (2019–20) was a research-based exhibition and performance project that examined how tradition is constructed and sustained in contemporary society. Rather than treating tradition as a fixed entity, the project approached it as a practice shaped by multiple historical, social, and institutional conditions, critically investigating the structures that produce and reproduce traditional arts.
My contribution focused on Representation-Tradition, exploring how the bodies of female performers function as sites through which traditional aesthetics and cultural norms are enacted and maintained. This research was presented through the exhibition work How to Play the Traditional Gayageum.
The project became an important starting point for my ongoing interest in the body, femininity, gisaeng culture, and the ways traditional arts are embodied, represented, and transmitted. These questions continue to inform my current research on Gyeonggi Japga.