*Click on the images for a full caption*
View slideshow of
Haeri Yoo's installation progress
Gods, Demons and Generals:
Icons of
Korean Shamanism
This exhibition of late 19th-early 20th century paintings of spirits and deities represents and explores the indigenous shamanic tradition, which is a force that exists at the nexus of the culture and religion of Korea. These paintings were not created as art or decoration but rather as visual representations of the gods that a shaman (mudang or mansin) honors each day in her shrine, calls upon to help her give divinations, and manifests in her own person when she performs an elaborate ritual (kut). When they appear in rituals, the gods and ancestors speak through the shaman’s lips and perform through her own body, chastising family members for neglect and misbehavior but also bringing promises of good fortune. The images in the paintings, like the costumes that shamans wear when performing rituals, reveal a lively religious practice that incorporates elements of popular religion, Buddhism, and the old Confucian state, often with a dash of humor. To glimpse the world depicted in these compositions is to gain a unique perspective on Korea’s ancient past and immediate present at once.
This exhibition is organized by and paintings are on loan from The Korea Society, New York.
Haeri Yoo: Paper Deep
Haeri Yoo’s mixed-media site-specifi c installation examines themes of humor, sexuality, gestural fi guration and psychological tension. The formal sensibility of her native Korea translates into sensitivity to negative space and markmaking. By adding and mutating reality, her wall drawing fuses beauty and violence.
Also on view in the Perspectives Gallery: Chinese and Japanese Scrolls from the Kresge Art Museum collection.
Exhibitions and programs organized in conjunction with MSU’s Asian Studies Program.
