As a Korean woman, I wonder about a contradiction between real women and female stereotypical images. Despite the difficulty in defining what women are, our society continues to generate stereotypical images of women as vulnerable, pure, passive, soft, fancy, and cute. Mass media and advertisements serve as a major agent that produces such images and presents women's sexuality as commodities. Examples include young female models who say "It is so clean" and "It is so pure" with a sanitary napkin or cosmetic in their hands, a delightful woman who leans on her refrigerator, dressed up like a Queen, and a female protagonist on a TV show who finally finds her true love in spite of hardships.

  These popular and familiar portrayals of femininity work against a successful formation of one's own identity by constraining women's behavior and their thinking. In light of these observations, I ask two questions in the Pink & White project, "What are women?" and "How should I see them?"

  In general, pink and white are stereotypical colors that symbolize femininity. The color of white represents purity and sacrifice. In a traditional Korean society, keeping one's virginal purity and feminine modesty was regarded as a high virtue of woman. Although a younger generation in contemporary modern Korea is experiencing a rapid change in social values due to an influx of western culture, the traditional virtue is still the standard to evaluate women's mortality.

  In the series of White, white powder and liquid, which look like objects covered with snow, symbolize woman's sexuality (egg and peach) and connote women's fantasy of love (cake of a heart shape, and a Cinderella pop-up book). The world covered in snow is peaceful and tranquil but we can barely figure out what is underneath it. Snow is a natural element but the white powder I intentionally scattered upon the natural element is a cultural code, which, in a metaphorical sense, conceals women's sense of self.

  The color of pink is commonly associated with girlishness. Pink is often considered a sexual color and reflects a male sexual desire towards young girls. In Japanese animations and comic books, we can easily observe school-girl characters who are dressed in a school uniform or a pink mini-skirt. They have a baby face but their body is that of a mature woman with full breasts and a curvy bodyline. In my work, I create a melting strawberry ice cream in a shape of a penis and a statue of a glossy Virgin Mary painted in pink. I intended to show how it confuses the way we perceive a typical pink. A pink wall built up with Lego blocks covered with strawberry milk conveys women's psychology and emotions trapped in a pink world.

  On the surface of objects covered with white or painted in pink in the project, Pink & White, I expressed artificial beauty and femininity that our society imposes upon women. The artificial beauty, which makes an object appear more beautiful than it naturally is, drives women to pursue a conventional beauty without realizing that it interrupts a formation of their true identity. As I express women's identity through my work, I discover that a reality of women exists under the deceptive beauty.