Lee So-Young - 이소영

A Strange Travel
Indian ink animation film, running time 6min, 2007

From ancient times, Koreans have regarded the heaven, the earth and human beings as being at being basic factors that make up the world. These three were thought to be one and the same, so that all creatures were believed to have their own spirit. This is called "animism".

This work describes the idea that nature and human beings are united as one. Human beings are a part of nature and all living creatures, the moon, the sun, the earth and the mist have something in common. From this point of view, the world is integral and cannot be separated into itself and others.

Synopsis: A girl travels into a cave unknown. The girl witnesses her fingerprints change into the shape of the heaven (•) and earth (—). Then the mist, which is the breath of the heaven, gathers around to make a human being. As she dances, the Hangul (Korean alphabet) starts to be born. It describes how Hangul comes from the heaven and the earth and then unites with the human being. The girl, who has been wandering, realises that she is on her own hands. The image of her thumb and the cave are slowly duplicated.

Bankudae Petroglyphs and A Freshwater Eel
270x58cm, Indian ink and color on cloth cotton, 2008

The Korean Ulsan Dagok-Ri has petroglyphs (rock carvings) created between the stone age and the bronze age. They are engraved with ancient forms of snake, deer, tiger, pasturage and hunting scenes — even a scene of hunting whales is included. There are around 200 of these carvings. The lower part of the Petroglyphs are covered by water for 4 months of the year, causing rapid erosion due to dam construction. As it was left alone and nobody knew the erosion was occurring, it was thought that the damage to the Petroglyphs was caused by the eel. A characteristic of the eel is that it travels to the ocean for mating but returns to the rivers to lay the eggs, similar to Salmon. After the damming of the Nak Tong River, the movement of the eel was restricted and eel numbers gradually dropped. This work scrutinizes the avarice for which convenience of human beings damages nature and the environment through destroying the Petroglyphs and the eel.