“My Youth,” a painting by Yoon Lee, a senior majoring in fine arts, depicts a girl in the sea. The girl is wearing pink, the color of a lotus flower. Directly in front of this painting is the ceramic sculpture “Burden,” where a mother is carrying a pot on her head while the fabric of her clothing is ripped, exposing her breasts, both symbols of sacrifice.

Both of these works are a part of Lee’s exhibit, “From Mud to Bloom.” The exhibit explores themes of femininity and sacrifice, weaving Korean art techniques and a Korean folk story into its central themes.

Lee received the Macomber Travel Grant earlier this year, which allows select students in the Roski School of Art and Design to conduct research-based travel on the condition that the student make an exhibition. Lee, having spent the last couple of years in the United States but originally from South Korea, used this as an opportunity to learn how to connect her current artistic interests with her culture.

“I usually work with themes like feminism and women’s sacrifice and gender stereotypes. So I was trying to figure out ways to connect my culture [with] my themes,” Lee said. 

While in Korea, thanks to the grant, Lee learned traditional painting styles. She used what she learned there to create works for the exhibit using Korean pigment and mulberry paper. She combined traditional painting styles with Western techniques.

“Since I learned this technique, I really wanted to challenge myself and experiment,” Lee said. “I wanted to create the same texture, but using Western art mediums, so acrylics on canvas instead of mulberry paper, and inks.” 

“Mother” is one of pieces which depicts a mother whose head is covered by a lotus leaf carrying two children whose heads have been replaced with lotus flowers. The leaf is wrapped around the mother in an almost suffocating manner. 

The lotus is inspired by the Korean folk tale of Shim Cheong, which Lee incorporated in the exhibit as a way to tie her culture to the themes she works with. The story is about a daughter who sacrifices herself for her blind father by drowning herself in the sea. Her father gains his eyesight back and a few days later she is reborn in a lotus flower. Lee said the story relates to Korean femininity, which is rooted in the concept of sacrifice. 

“It’s trying to justify that women have to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of their family,” Lee said.

Lee said she sees the concept of sacrifice as something that is passed down from generation to generation by Korean women. Instead of viewing the lotus flower as a symbol of rebirth, as it has traditionally been viewed, Lee said she views it as a symbol of women’s sacrifice; for her the lotus doesn’t symbolize the rebirth of the girl, but her sacrifice.  

“My Youth” and “Burden” use this motif and the story of Shim Cheong to tell a story of sacrifice. In the exhibition, the mother in “Burden” is looking at the girl in “My Youth,” both looking in the same direction, yet unable to look at each other. 

“It’s like she’s looking back at herself, and the girl is facing the sea, which is infinite, so this is creating infinite cycles of generations of sacrifice,” Lee said.

The exhibition also featured other ceramic sculptures. “The weight of Blossom” portrays a human figure with a slightly bent back. Its head is replaced with a lotus flower seed pod, and its arms are behind it, holding a lotus flower that is just starting to bloom. 

Thomas Mueller, an associate teaching professor of 3D art at Roski, said constructing that sculpture was technically difficult because Lee had to fight gravity.

“She pushed through, and to her credit, it’s standing, but more importantly, the step pose is really beautiful,” Mueller said.

“The weight of Blossom” stands on a long rectangular pedestal, taking up little space in the sculpture room and allowing the viewer to take in the piece. 

“Oftentimes, young art students have a fear of empty space,” Mueller said. “They feel like they have to fill every corner of a gallery or a wall or a canvas, but she’s left enough room to breathe. … [Empty] space is filled with the presence of all these objects and paintings.”

The placement of each work in the exhibit is well thought out, said Paul Donald, a lecturer at Roski and mentor to Lee. 

“I feel like, as an audience, we have been considered,” Donald said. “We come into the room, and we’re expected guests. Things are laid out for us to enjoy in a particular way.” 

In choosing the theme for the exhibit, Lee said she pulled on her experiences of seeing her mother’s sacrifices for her. However, Donald said Lee doesn’t let her own experiences overshadow the exhibit. 

“She’s starting to look at bigger picture things,” Donald said. “It’s coming from a personal place, but it doesn’t have to be strictly biographical, but it draws on that so it becomes more expansive in terms of what an audience might experience.” 

“From Mud to Bloom” will run at the Helen Lindhurst Fine Arts Gallery in Watt Hall until Dec. 10.