Afternoon Tea Before Seollal
Year: 2025
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Size: 22” x 16”
Others: Before Seollal, the Korean New Year, my mother and my grandmother would always wrap my sister and I in itchy hanboks and braid our hair into neat, tight knots. This piece captures that mundane but intimate moment, shared between grandmother and mother, mother and daughter. Beyond the grand ceremony of Seollal itself, it is in the simple acts of braiding hair and pouring that tradition on, a touch of everyday tenderness. My sister and I have gone years now without wearing hanboks or braiding our hair, and past is gently flows into the future.