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2024. 3. 29


[¹Ì¼úÀϹÝ] Debbie Han / Top Asian Art Prize
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Debbie Han Wins Top Asian Art Prize


Debbie Han's ``Seated Three Graces'' won the jury prize at the 2009 Sovereign Asian Art Prize in Hong Kong last January. / Courtesy of the artist

By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter

The first thing that you notice about Korean-American artist Debbie Han is her hair: perfectly gelled to stick out in different directions, like a character from Dragon Ball.

Àç¹Ì±³Æ÷ÀÛ°¡ÀÎ µ¥ºñ ÇÑÁî ¿¡ ´ëÇØ Ã¹¹ø°·Î ÁÖ¸ñ ÇÒ°ÍÀº Çì¾î½ºÅ¸ÀÏÀÌ´Ù:  ¸¶Ä¡ ¿©ÀÇÁַκÎÅÍ °³¼ºÈ­ÇÑ°Í °°ÀÌ ´Ù¸¥ ¹æÇâÀ¸·Î Ä¡¼Ú°Ô ¸Å¸¸µç ±×ÀÇ ¸Ó¸®´Ù.  HanÀº Áö³­ÁÖ ¼­¿ï¿¡ ÀÖ´Â ±×³àÀÇ Áý¿¡¼­ ÄÚ¸®¾Æ ŸÀÓÁö¿Í ÀÎÅͺäÇÏ´Â µ¿¾È ¿ôÀ½À» º¸À̸ç"¸¹Àº »ç¶÷µéÀÌ ³ªÀÇ ¸Ó¸®¿¡ ´ëÇØ ¹¯´Â´Ù" °í ÇÑ´Ù. ¿äÁò ÇÑÀº Áö³­ 1¿ù 2009 Sovereign Asian Art ¿¡¼­ Jury»óÀ» ¼ö»óÇÑ ÈÄ ´õ¿í ´õ ¸¹Àº ÁÖ¸ñÀ» ¹Þ°í ÀÖ´Ù.


``A lot of people ask me about my hair,'' Han admitted with a laugh during an interview with The Korea Times at her home in northern Seoul last week.

These days though, Han is attracting more attention for her art, after she won the jury prize at the 2009 Sovereign Asian Art Prize last January.



Han became the first artist representing Korea to receive the award, whose $25,000 prize is the largest in Asia, for the piece ``Seated Three Graces.'' Her work, which challenges the Western standard of beauty, features three nude Asian women with prototypical Western classical heads, seemingly chatting while squatting on the floor.

Han Àº " Seated Three Graces " ¶ó´Â ÀÛÇ°À¸·Î ¾Æ½Ã¾Æ¿¡¼­ °¡Àå ¸¹Àº 2¸¸ 5õ ´Þ¶ó »ó´çÀÇ »óÀ» óÀ½À¸·Î ¼ö»óÇÑ Çѱ¹ÀÛ°¡°¡ µÇ¾ú´Ù. ¼­±¸ÀÇ »ó¡ÀûÀÎ ¾Æ¸§´Ù¿ò¿¡ µµÀüÇÑ ±×ÀÇ ÀÛÇ°Àº ¼­±¸ÀÇ ÀüÇüÀûÀÎ °íÀüÀû ¸Ó¸®ÇüŸ¦ ÇÑ ¼¼ ¹ß°¡¹þÀº ¾Æ½Ã¾Æ ¿©ÀÎÀÌ ¹Ù´Ú¿¡ ÆíÀÌ ¾É¾Æ ¼ö´Ù¶°´Â ¸ð½ÀÀ» º¸¿©ÁÖ°íÀÖ´Ù.
 
ÀÌ »óÀº ³»°¡ Çѱ¹¿¡¼­ Áö³­ 6³â°£ ¸Ó¹«´Â µ¿¾È ÀÌ·¯ÇÑ ºñÁ¯ÀÇ ½ÇÁ¦È­¸¦ ÅëÇÑ Ã¢Á¶ÀûÀÎ ¿©Çà, ³ªÀÇ °áÁ¤°ú ³ªÀÇ ºñÁ¯°ú ¹ÌÄ£ °ÍÀ» ÁøÁ¤À¸·Î Á¤´çÈ­ ÇÒ¼ö ÀÖ°Ô Çß´Ù°í ¸»ÇÑ´Ù "³ªÀÇ ÀÛÇ°Àº Çѱ¹À¸·Î ÀÌÀü ÈÄ ¸Å¿ì ´Ù¸¥ ¼öÁØÀ¸·Î ºñ»óÇÏ¿´´Ù.
 
``This award to me really validates my decision, my vision and the crazy, creative journey I've been through to actualize these visions in the last six years in Korea,'' she said. ``My work really took off on a very different level after I moved back to Korea.''

The Korean-born Han migrated to the U.S. with her family when she was in elementary school. She majored in art at the University of California, Los Angeles and received a master's degree from Pratt Institute in New York.

As an artist working in Los Angeles, Han still felt a strong urge to return to her home country. So, in 2003, she came back to take part in an artist residency program.

``I had a vision, a strong desire to document what was happening in Korea and Asia at this moment, through my own eyes. I grew up in the U.S., and when I came to Korea, I wanted to get in touch with my heritage, and feel an Asian cultural identity. But what I saw was a strong Westernization in every level of society, arts and culture, not just in Korea but in Asia. I thought `Why is there such an obsession with keeping up with the Western trends?''' she said.

Her first solo show here was ``Idealistic Oddity'' in 2004 where she criticized the art education system in Korea, which required students to make exact copies of classical European figures, such as Venus de Milo, as part of their applications to universities. ``It's once again like worshipping and idealizing the Western standard of art, and passing it down as art,'' she said.

The longer she stayed in Korea, the more Han realized this obsession to conform to Western standards was becoming more widespread in society, like with the plastic surgery craze.

Through her works, Han continued to challenge people's perceptions of beauty and conformity to Western standards.

In the series ``Terms of Beauty,'' she created sculpture busts of Venus, a symbol of Western classical beauty, with altered facial features to have the stereotypical featrues such as slanted eyes, hooked noses and wide mouths.

Instead of marble, she used the ancient Korean ceramic tradition of celadon, which proved to be an arduous process. In three years, she tried to perfect the technique, making 173 casts but only seven survived.

It's the same kind of passion that Han feels when she's tackling the issues of beauty, identity and perception.

``For me, it has to be a journey to get to the essence of the meaning of life. Why are we the way we are and why do we think the way we do? Sometimes you have to deconstruct your own system of perception in order to understand the meaning of it all through your own eyes,'' she said.

Apart from challenging the Western standards of beauty, Han also sought to idealize Asian beauty in her ``Graces'' photograph series. It depicted nude Asian women, with every skin pore and hair on the body digitally removed to make it smooth like marble, and their heads replaced with goddess sculpture heads.

``I'm an Asian woman and I had to do that since no one was doing that. Everyone is pressuring Asian women to conform to the Western standards. Someone has to come and justify and validate the beauty and existence of Asian beauty as it is, not in a didactic way but in a way that can be revealing,'' the 41-year-old artist said.

However, Han is ending these series of sculptures and photographic works this year, and will start fresh with a new series in 2011, although she does not know what it will be yet.

Looking back on her six years in Korea, Han admitted she went through times where she felt like ``an idiot who couldn't give up her impossible visions.''

``I felt the last six years of my time in Korea has taught me to endure, stay with the vision and go through with it no matter what. It made me stronger and I became more mature as an artist, and I think that's the greatest thing I learned, and my work reflected that,'' she said.

cathy@koreatimes.co.kr

``A lot of people ask me about my hair,'' Han admitted with a laugh during an interview with The Korea Times at her home in northern Seoul last week.

These days though, Han is attracting more attention for her art, after she won the jury prize at the 2009 Sovereign Asian Art Prize last January.



Han became the first artist representing Korea to receive the award, whose $25,000 prize is the largest in Asia, for the piece ``Seated Three Graces.'' Her work, which challenges the Western standard of beauty, features three nude Asian women with prototypical Western classical heads, seemingly chatting while squatting on the floor.

``This award to me really validates my decision, my vision and the crazy, creative journey I've been through to actualize these visions in the last six years in Korea,'' she said. ``My work really took off on a very different level after I moved back to Korea.''

The Korean-born Han migrated to the U.S. with her family when she was in elementary school. She majored in art at the University of California, Los Angeles and received a master's degree from Pratt Institute in New York.

As an artist working in Los Angeles, Han still felt a strong urge to return to her home country. So, in 2003, she came back to take part in an artist residency program.

``I had a vision, a strong desire to document what was happening in Korea and Asia at this moment, through my own eyes. I grew up in the U.S., and when I came to Korea, I wanted to get in touch with my heritage, and feel an Asian cultural identity. But what I saw was a strong Westernization in every level of society, arts and culture, not just in Korea but in Asia. I thought `Why is there such an obsession with keeping up with the Western trends?''' she said.

Her first solo show here was ``Idealistic Oddity'' in 2004 where she criticized the art education system in Korea, which required students to make exact copies of classical European figures, such as Venus de Milo, as part of their applications to universities. ``It's once again like worshipping and idealizing the Western standard of art, and passing it down as art,'' she said.

The longer she stayed in Korea, the more Han realized this obsession to conform to Western standards was becoming more widespread in society, like with the plastic surgery craze.

Through her works, Han continued to challenge people's perceptions of beauty and conformity to Western standards.

In the series ``Terms of Beauty,'' she created sculpture busts of Venus, a symbol of Western classical beauty, with altered facial features to have the stereotypical featrues such as slanted eyes, hooked noses and wide mouths.

Instead of marble, she used the ancient Korean ceramic tradition of celadon, which proved to be an arduous process. In three years, she tried to perfect the technique, making 173 casts but only seven survived.

It's the same kind of passion that Han feels when she's tackling the issues of beauty, identity and perception.

``For me, it has to be a journey to get to the essence of the meaning of life. Why are we the way we are and why do we think the way we do? Sometimes you have to deconstruct your own system of perception in order to understand the meaning of it all through your own eyes,'' she said.

Apart from challenging the Western standards of beauty, Han also sought to idealize Asian beauty in her ``Graces'' photograph series. It depicted nude Asian women, with every skin pore and hair on the body digitally removed to make it smooth like marble, and their heads replaced with goddess sculpture heads.

``I'm an Asian woman and I had to do that since no one was doing that. Everyone is pressuring Asian women to conform to the Western standards. Someone has to come and justify and validate the beauty and existence of Asian beauty as it is, not in a didactic way but in a way that can be revealing,'' the 41-year-old artist said.

However, Han is ending these series of sculptures and photographic works this year, and will start fresh with a new series in 2011, although she does not know what it will be yet.

Looking back on her six years in Korea, Han admitted she went through times where she felt like ``an idiot who couldn't give up her impossible visions.''

``I felt the last six years of my time in Korea has taught me to endure, stay with the vision and go through with it no matter what. It made me stronger and I became more mature as an artist, and I think that's the greatest thing I learned, and my work reflected that,'' she said.
Ãâó : ÄÚ¸®¾Æ ŸÀÓÁî
cathy@koreatimes.co.kr

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