Watery Studies: WATER, WOMXN, JEJU
Current Artistic Research
I did not know how to swim until I started living in Jeju Island last year. As I learn and build visceral relationships with water, I begin to draw a metaphor from the bodies of water to bodies of women. Through the lens of ecofememinsm, especially hydrofeminism, I have been swimming through a vast ocean of untold stories of women and water in Jeju, and thinking about our relationship to self, community, and nature.
While Jeju island is commonly known as a volcanic island, Jeju is also known as a place full of women who are as strong as the volcanic ground which they live on. What draws my interest is that the central creation myth of Jeju Island itself involves a giant grandmother goddess called Goddess Grandmother Seolmundae. To this day, many people in Jeju today still truly believe that this grandma goddess, rather than a volcano, created this island. The fact that a single female deity is at the center of its central creation myth is highly unusual among the world’s mythologies. I imagine this is perhaps a primary source behind the local archetype of the ‘strong Jeju woman’. The cultural practices of Jeju haenyeo (free- or breathhold-diving women) are roots of the matriarchal society as well as deep ecology. While numerous preservation efforts have been initiated, including the haenyeo culture being designated as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage, it is inevitable that the time is soon coming for this unique community to gradually disappear.
As I witness everyday rituals and cultures of haneyos, I can’t help asking what I can do today as a teaching artist, designer, researcher and writer. I have been exploring various ways to document and celebrate stories of women in Jeju, and share them with a broader audience. I believe that these women, and their countless matriarchal ancestors, deserve to be honored, appreciated and memorialized—perhaps in a completely new, radical, playful and contemporary form, for their spirits to continue.
May 2022, Jeju Island
