Museum Visit

The museum exhibit at the Design Museum in Walker Hall at U.C. Davis is entitled, Typographic Exploration in Hangul. In this exhibit, two artists explore the language of native Korea: Hangul. One of the artists, Hyunju Lee, uses the characters of this language to evoke feelings, nature scenes, even a cultural dance.
In one particular piece, "Haha Hoho", Lee incorporates color with the Hangul symbols to describe an emotion or action, laughter. Instead of representing this action with a literal picture, Lee uses color and the symbol for laughter (in Hangul) to describe it. The shape of the piece is reminiscent of a smile. A half oval shape symbolizes the human emotion of smiling, but by using just symbols, lines and color, this emotion is de-contextualized completely. Lee describes the image as representing a sound, and by using different sizes of the symbol and lines; the artist has created depth with this piece, and has created an illusion of different kinds of laughter; whether it is loud and quiet, or a man and a woman. There is also a sense of illusion that everything is layered on this two-dimensional plane, which gives it a three-dimensional appeal to it. Also by creating a sense of positive and negative space, Lee has used mark making to create a beautifully juxtaposed image.
Laughter is a universal emotion, and Hyunju has created a piece that not only speaks to her own culture, but to cultures all over the world. The bold use of "happy" and bright colors and an aesthetically pleasing shape helps create a piece that embodies the design of this inventive artist.