Suk Kuhn Oh
Chulsoo and Younghee are central characters from popular illustrated Korean children’s books. Much like Jack and Jill for readers of English, these two are well known in Korea, and typically appear engaged in routine daily activities such as playing with their pets or attending school. For his series The Text Book (Chulsoo & Younghee), Suk Kuhn Oh employed the two figures in a conceptual exploration of personal traumas experienced by fellow Koreans, particularly those remembered from childhood. To do so, he fabricated large doll-like masks of Chulsoo and Younghee and posed his subjects wearing them – including himself – in dramatic re-enactments of their own vivid memories. Oh’s color images are simultaneously biographical and anonymous. He describes his Chulsoo and Younghee stagings as confessional; they are attempts to reconcile seemingly idyllic public lives with painful private experience. “We may not exactly decipher their actions or feelings, but we can remember parallel ...