East Wind
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Object Label
The CT scan shown here reveals that the wrappings of this mummy directly reflect the position of the ibis’s bones and its beak, curving over its breast. The length of the beak indicates a male.
Carbon 14 dating of a sample taken from the linen places this mummy in a period earlier than suggested by the wrapping style. Future testing will include in addition a sample from the animal itself, to determine whether old, recycled linen was used in preparing the mummy.
Caption
Ran Hwang South Korean, born 1960. East Wind, 2012. Plastic and metal buttons and beads, metal pins, wood panel, overall: 71 x 142 in. (180.3 x 360.7cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Walter N. Rothschild, by exchange and Mary Smith Dorward Fund, 2012.27a-c. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of Leila Heller Gallery, New York, CUR.2012.27a-c_view1_Leila_Heller_Gallery_photo.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
East Wind
Date
2012
Geography
Possible place made: New York, New York, United States, Possible place made: Seoul, South Korea
Medium
Plastic and metal buttons and beads, metal pins, wood panel
Classification
Dimensions
overall: 71 x 142 in. (180.3 x 360.7cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Walter N. Rothschild, by exchange and Mary Smith Dorward Fund
Accession Number
2012.27a-c
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
The Brooklyn Museum holds a non-exclusive license to reproduce images of this work of art from the rights holder named here. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org. If you wish to contact the rights holder for this work, please email copyright@brooklynmuseum.org and we will assist if we can.
Frequent Art Questions
¡Qué hermoso!
¡Es un obra hecho completamente por alfileres y botones! Representa los templos y palacios en Corea del Sur, los cuales se refieren al concepto de ilustración.The button art in the infinite blue exhibition, do you know how long that took the artist to make? How many buttons on the piece? Thanks!
This took about 5 months to produce! She starts by digitally creating composite images from photographs.Hwang then projects the image onto the wood panel and traces out the shape. She then hammers the pins with button onto the board. The process of hammering in each pin is mediative. She says it is "not unlike a monk engaged in Zen practice."Wow, thank you!You're welcome! It's an incredible artwork.We were wondering if all the little beads in this work are flat or are some of them spherical?
Those little disks are actually buttons!Hwang developed this technique when she was working in an embroidery design studio that had piles of unused buttons.For Hwang, buttons also reference the fashion industry. They both relate to generations of women sewing garments and to the current global fashion workforce, primarily women, many from Asia like herself.I love it even more. Thank you!I love this piece (but can’t imagine it is easy to transport or display). Does the artist always work with buttons?
Very often! Hwang began working with buttons in the late 1990s and 2000s while she was working for an embroidery design studio.She encountered piles of unused buttons that were available for her to do with as she wished, so she started using them to create her artwork! They are now characteristic of her work.Also, about the grand scale, you'll notice that the white panel in the back is separated into several sections which likely make it easier to deinstall and transport.Tell me more.
Made of pins and buttons, Ran Hwang's East Wind combines zen making with fashion materials.The work is created from individual buttons threaded on needles that are then hammered into wood panel, a meticulous, repetitive, zen-like process on the part of the artist that is reflected in the temple structures in the work—a reference to enlightenment!I'm interested in this art because it represents my home country, Korea. How is it made? It looks like it's created with buttons one by one.
You guessed correctly! The artist threaded buttons onto needles, which she then hammered into wood panels one by one to create this image.For her, the processes of hammering the pins onto the board is meditative, not unlike a monk engaged in Zen practice.The image itself is a composite of multiple temple and palace structures in South Korea. The building rests on a foundation of chandeliers holding candles. The candles and temples, along with her zen-like process, reference enlightenment.Thank you so much!Was the depth of the pins done on purpose? Because to get the pins in and out at different lengths must have taken a while, and you could destroy pieces of the art if it wasn’t done precisely!
You’re quite right: it’s a long process to thread the buttons and beads onto pins and then hammer them one by one into the wood backing. Hwang says, “The process of producing large installations is time consuming and repetitive, requiring intense manual labor performed in a meditative state, hammering thousands of pins into a wall, not unlike a monk engaged in Zen practice.”Why are they represented by different colors... would it have to do with wealth?
I don't think the colors are associated with wealth. The blue could relate to the cobalt used in blue-and-white Korean ceramics, or it could just be a color the artist likes. Her other "Palace Works" use other colors, such as white, green, and brown, as well as blue.How do works like this get put up? Did this have to be constructed on site?
Good question! If you look closely, you'll notice that all of the buttons are pinned to a backing. That backing is part of the work itself and the whole thing can be moved as a unit.Art handlers just have to be sure that there are large enough doors to get this huge piece through!How long did East Wind by Ran Hwang take to complete?
Hwang's palace works like this one take around 5 months to complete.Why did the artist use buttons, (instead of glass balls, pebbles, or bottle tops)?
Hwang started using buttons to create her work in the early 2000s, responding in part to the availability of old buttons at her job in an embroidery studio in New York and in part to the way individual buttons could stand in for people and souls, a connection she made even more clearly after witnessing the events of 9/11. However, she does use other materials: if you look closely at this piece you may notice flat disks and some round beads mixed in as well.Was the East Wind assembled at the museum?
It was not! Well, not completely anyway. You'll notice that there is a seam in the panel where the piece can be separated into two parts. We simply joined them together!
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