Women on the Edge of Time

Suejin Jo

Prayer Rock

2020 , oil and acrylic on canvas 48”x36” 

Pandemic isolation transported me to the earliest memories and I stared with wonder at the village I came from. Everything we needed was within walking distance. Tofu house, mill, butcher, grain shop, vegetable market, tailor, doctor, school, and Han River! Trip to the mill clutching Mom’s skirt was a joy anticipating holiday cakes. Picking up tofu for breakfast was a proud errand of becoming a big girl. Colors swirled, sounds clanged, unpaved streets under my little feet filled my heart with teary love and Village series materialized. My village buried under the skyscrapers now, Peach Blossom Valley in the River district.
Prayer Rock was a gigantic rock with a legend that expecting mothers came to pray for a son by rubbing a small flat stone to the big rock. If the stone stuck to the rock it meant she would get a son.

Suejin Jo

Video Short by Suejin Jo

NYSWA: Suejin Jo