Adopted artists share ideas with Korean students
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Erika Blikman, 37, and Mai Marie Choon Dijksma, 31, explained their works and the project “At Home in Patterns” at Ewha Media High School in Jungnang District, northern Seoul, on Thursday.
Twenty-five students were keen on making collage works with the artists.
Blikman and Dijksma are residency artists of Seoul Art Space Geumcheon. They were adopted to the Netherlands after being born in Busan and Seoul, respectively. The two teamed up to apply for the residency artist position in Seoul Art Space, to explore the “feeling of home” with the people from their motherland.
“We got the idea to work together in Korea first in 2006 since Korea is our background,” Blikman told The Korea Times.
The two have different characteristics. Blikman is more into photography, film and performance, while Dijksma majored in textile and produces installation artworks. “We thought it would be interesting to bring those together and learn from each other,” Dijksma said.
Blikman’s 2008 work “Real Bananas,” portraying Asian adopted children growing up in white families in the Netherlands, is an interpretation of her life, yellow on the outside, but white on the inside.
Their “At Home in Patterns” project is to reconstruct the feeling of security and assurance at home through pieces of everyone’s favorite clothing. Blikman gave an example by showing a red hand-knitted dress, explaining that her grandmother made the dress and she wore it on the day she was baptized.
The artists brought magazines and swatches to provide material for the student’s collage. Students soon came up with a list of five favorite items of clothing and visualized them on the circle. Some divided the circle in slices, while others put their best dress in the center.
Kwak So-hee, 17, came up with a collage using her childhood dress and her mother’s cardigan. “I always wore ample dresses because I was plump then. My mother’s cardigan reminded me of the importance of family, which I don’t realize much at ordinary times,”Kwak said. “We generally prepare for college entrance exam, but it was a fresh experience.”
The two artists were also excited to work with Korean students. “The students are all girls and they are in school uniform. This is a whole new experience for us to explain our works in front of such creative students,” Dijksma said. “I learned a new way of thinking from them.”
Blikman said Korean students understand the project and picked up material well. “They caught on to what we intend quickly,” she said.
This is a part of Seoul Art Space Geumcheon’s “Artist in School” program. Ewha Media High School was chosen for the first venue because of its enthusiastic teacher, Lim Kyung-mook, who is in charge of the design department.
“Students at this age should learn from various experiences, but the current education system made them learn only by books, resulting in lack of creativity. I try to provide diverse opportunities for the students and let them think about it,” Lim said.
The two adopted artists arrived here in January and worked in community art projects in the vicinity of Doksan-dong near the Seoul Art Space Geumcheon. “We walk around Geumcheon area and take pictures. Walking around the city and breathing the air gives me inspiration,” Blikman said.
Dijksma is working on a piece titled “Sky in the Room” on the rooftop of Seoul Art Space Geumcheon. “It is a display of cubes and I add a cube a day, which stands for fast construction in Korea,” she said.
Blikman and Dijksma will exhibit the result of their stay in Korea with other artists with the title of “On the Surface,” from April 27 to May 5 at the third floor of Seoul Art Space Geumcheon. Abigail Collins from the United States and Susan Kang from Canada will join the exhibition.
To find more about their project, visit https://home2seoul.wordpress.com.