Son’s project Colour, the memory of sadism researches social hierarchy based on ethnic backgrounds. The project is an expression of the artist’s compassion for this society drawing from her personal experience as an Asian woman living in a western, northern society.

The project has a quantity-based approach, matching and testing skin colours of as many volunteers as possible, and thus aiming to present every single member of society through colour. Colour portraits are created, emphasizing individuality through colour and abstraction.  As part of the project, the audience as well may test and match their own skin tone against a colour grade system the artist has created, based on the Munsell colour system.

The underlying questions prompted in Son’s work explore the complexity of human experience and existence: Where are we from? Where do we really come from? What defines our identity, or who defines it?

BIO
HAKKYUNG SON (b. Seoul, South Korea) creates images with printmaking techniques while combining them with a performative sense. Techniques include silkscreen, digital printing, etching, and lithography. Lately, her artistic practice focuses on colour as material, based on the Munsell colour theory. Inspired by her Asian roots, whilst based in northern Europe, she researches colour hues and colour values of our society, whilst blurring boundaries of humour and seriousness.

Hakkyung Son is a recent graduate of MA Fine Art at Tromsø Art Academy (2022) and holds a BA in Printmaking of Fine Art at Hongik University.