Keunhye Lee
Trace of Ritual Ceremony
A Practice in the Multi-Sensory Space
2014
As the second version of Ondol project, 'Trace of Ritual Ceremony' aims to develop culturally specific space, ondol floor engaging my everyday performance. Based on historical context with memories from my own spatial experience of Korean culture, this work shows how my practice directly addressed the cultural issues.
For this work, I used both traditional way of flooring and contemporary interactive technology and materials to create the reinterpreted floor for my performance; presenting how to link cultural issues with designing or how to explore the new materials in order to solve cultural questions.
I developed the spatial proposal in association with the process, in particular, performance presented as a process of making and doing through exploring Korean everyday life. For viewers, each stage of making and performing can shift into a performance and live installation.
My practice focuses on the sequential movement of my body, including ‘cleaning’, ‘removing shoes’ and ’entering’, demonstrating the ideas of ‘performance of everyday life’. These activities provide a symbolic passageway between the interaction of the implied ‘room’ and actual outdoor space, designating boundaries that define an ‘interior’ in Koreans’ minds.
I used the performance as a form of physical and symbolic demarcation. Although the performance is experienced through my body, it shows particular patterns of Korean social practice, which includes the act of ‘entering’, engaging in the ritual act of ‘cleaning’, and the ‘removal of shoes’. ‘Cleaning’ describes the differences between an interior and exterior space. The ‘removing shoes’ acts as a symbolic marker of space, and demands a certain level of cleanliness. My work gives knowledge of what the ritual act of ‘removing shoes’ represents culturally. I also explore how domestic activity, particularly the act of ‘cleaning’, can be used as a form of spatial design practice.