hibiscusI / "The Vegetarian"

Item

Title
hibiscusI / "The Vegetarian"
Creator
Lahey, Ella
Date Created
2024
Contributor
Han, Kang, 1970-
Description
This décollage object explores the tearing away of Yeong-hye’s body and identity that occurs in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. By using the décollage technique, I was able to explore the visceral experience of physically being able to rip something away. Using everyday materials allows an inquiry into the internal self of Yeong-hye and the outside forces that are manipulative around her. Indulging in the lines between organic and inorganic, visceral and mundane in this crafted object gives way to a consideration of self-involvement in an experiential way. Embodying the violence that occurs in the text showcases the different power dynamics that are at play in the novel, allowing an investigation into Yeong-hye’s consenting and non-consenting actions.

ELLA LAHEY ON WHAT THIS CRAFTED OBJECT TEACHES US:

In my final project, I wanted to highlight the inner workings of the main character, Yeong-hye, of Han Kang’s novel The Vegetarian. In my previous reflections, on the making processes of décollaging, rag rugging, and typesetting, I tended to focus on the three narrators of the text and the format of the novel, which is split into three main sections correlating with each of the narrators. The text never gives us more than a brief glimpse into the thinking of Yeong-hye. Other than momentary dream sequences from Yeong-hye’s past, there is nothing to go on except the interpretation of those who are observing her. For my final project, I wanted to explore the inside of what has happened to Yeong-hye through an embodied approach. The text reveals how violent a process she is going through to try and dismantle her physical being ; thus, I chose to use décollage as my craft practice. In the piece, the viewer is able to see the rips and different layers at play as the internal elements of the décollage are exposed. Through my crafted object, I investigate Yeong-hye’s inner self and inner dialogue through an embodied approach. Letting myself indulge in the violence of the novel heightened my experience of reading and learning from the text, allowing me to expand my knowledge past the novel’s textual mode and access its meaning in an experiential way.

The materials of the décollage were important to the process of creation: I had an opportunity to source the materials myself, as opposed to being given materials in a classroom setting to work with. All the materials I used were recycled from objects within my own home, including the backing of my piece. It is the backing of an old mirror that fell and broke, which I felt was fitting because that is exactly what Yeong-hye is trying to do: not be concerned with her physical appearance or looks. Incorporating this element of vanity into the process allowed me to be fully immersed in what Yeong-hye was trying to get rid of within herself. The brown paper that lines the mirror and that is ripped away to reveal the hibiscus center is from grocery delivery bags. I felt a need to include a dietary element in some way, as that is what Kang chooses to use as a vessel to explain her commentary about control and obsession in the text. The materials used for the central image primarily came from Vogue Magazine cuttings that I have been collecting. I found it ironic using superficial vanity-based material to represent a person who is attempting to get rid of her material self. What makes décollage so relevant to this text is that you are able to use the everyday materials of life to represent something larger than you, just as Kang does through the metaphor of vegetarianism in the novel. Finally, I felt the need to use an organic material in the craft, as Yeong-hye is preoccupied with being solely organic matter in her quest to become a tree. Thus, I cut off a piece of my hair to include in the décollage; this hair sprouts from the stomach of the woman at the centre of my piece. In a text that focuses so heavily on self-mutilation and destruction, I felt like I had to participate in some bodily way. By using my own piece of hair in my crafted object, I was able to feel a tiny part of the visceral experience Kang was trying to convey through her novel.

The name of the piece is significant to the décollage as well, as I wanted viewers to interact with the text in different ways, without even knowing it. hibiscusI suggests that there are going to be more variations of the décollage, possibly hibiscusII or hibiscusIII. What I wanted to evoke with the name is that this piece is possibly not a standalone exhibit of the novel, yet I will never create another piece in the feasible series, making hibiscusI an independent décollage. This choice of name reflects Yeong-hye’s experiences in the novel and Kang’s commentary on the sexualized and gendered violence that is a common occurrence in South Korea. Though what Yeong-hye goes through is extreme and uncommon, the experience of being under the control of a patriarchal power is not. What Kang suggests is that sexualized violence can feel like a lone experience, but in fact an invisible pattern of it exists throughout South Korea and in other cultural contexts.

What I found fascinating about moving through this experience through the book was the original reception of the novel, by both Anglophone and Korean readers. Published in 2007 as three separate novellas, the text was often interpreted by Korean readers as “bizarre and weird” but has since been sold as a cult classic (Shin). Prior to this final reflection, I was not aware of its previous status as a novella. I attribute this unawareness to my lack of time reading Korean reviews and only spending time on Anglophone reactions to the novel. This inattention to the original Korean publication reveals the problem of translation in both the actual text and the reaction to and circulation of it. Charse Yun’s “You Say Melon, I Say Lemon: Deborah Smith's Flawed Yet Remarkable Translation of "The Vegetarian" provides thoughtful insight into the problems of translations and why Deborah Smith’s translation is not entirely deserving of the criticism it has received in South Korea. He argues that though Smith added some ‘Westernized’ flair to the novel, “she successfully introduced a work of literature to people who might otherwise never have had a chance to read it” (Yun). This statement solidified how I felt about my own crafts I have been producing about the book this semester. At the beginning of the course, I was concerned with using a translated text and some of the challenges that would come with it, including interpreting correctly. While I do share some of those same concerns now, I view my process of making crafted objects around this text differently. Translation is supposed to allow others, who might not normally have the chance to interpret, an opportunity to comprehend and enjoy the text. That is what other students and I have been doing through crafted objects: interpreting a text and allowing our own experiences to fall into our final crafted projects. I do not expect my own crafted piece to be an exact replica of what the text represents and means, but rather a holistic view of my experience as one reader interacting with the novel.

Décollage works as a way to interpret a text like The Vegetarian because of its readily available meaning-making by its viewers. This availability can partly be attributed to its connection to and derivation from collage. The history of collage is intertwined with means of processing the world and is “neither medium nor genre, but a mode; a means of processing the world as it was encountered by individuals across cultures and geographies, who subsequently produced a creative response to that experience” (Gowerley 13). Working within this definition of collage and décollage authorizes both the creator and viewer to use these creative processes as containers of meaning. Collage started out being perceived as a domestic act of compiling, cutting, and ripping—as a hobby—but eventually evolved into ‘high art’ performed by artists like Picassso (13). I am attempting to revert to this historical notion of collage as a hobby about self-enjoyment, not as a way to capture an experience. In Fragmentary Forms, Freya Gowrley discusses the use of ‘readymades’ in collage and the impact they had on how collage is formed:

Readymades (that is, an already produced object taken and
elevated by an artist to the status of art) pull at the seams of
how art is understood and defined by encouraging a
revaluation of issues long held to be at the center of artistic
achievement, such as the demonstration of a high level of
technical skill, or the true-to-life representation of a subject.
Instead, readymades present the hand and mind of the
artist, no matter what it makes, changes, or presents, as the
paramount element in a work of art. (293)

Readymades are pertinent to my own work in décollaging because using everyday objects such as grocery bags is important to interpreting Kang’s allegory of vegetarianism. Kang is using the everyday ritual of eating and what Yeong-hye eats as a way of exploring the everyday reality of women in South Korea, a reality that comprises an everyday experience of control and power by patriarchal powers.

Overall, this final project has led me to consider all my previous crafts projects for the course. Looking through all my work done thus far has allowed me to make this final piece in a way that engages me in a whole, embodied way—and engages with the text to the utmost extent. Analyzing what makes Yeong-hye undertake these actions produces a process that posits how décollage functions to provide meaning from objects that can act as vessels for exploration. Working within this particular mode of meaning-making has been fruitful in all aspects of creation, from the materials that I used to my destruction of them. Taking a deep dive into Yeong-hye’s character has let me inspect both my own and historical creative processes.
References
Gowerley, Freya. “Introduction.” Fragmentary Forms: A New History of Collage, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2024, pp. 9-21.

Gowrley, Freya. “Objects of Modernity .” Fragmentary Forms: A New History of Collage, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2024, pp. 292–329.

Kang, Han. The Vegetarian. Translated by Deborah Smith, Portobello Books, 2016.

Shin, Sarah. “Interview with Han Kang.” The White Review, March 2016, https://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/interview-with-han-kang/.

Yun, Charse. “You Say Melon, I Say Lemon: Deborah Smith's Flawed Yet Remarkable Translation of 'The Vegetarian'.” Korea Expose, 2 July 2017, https://koreaexpose.com/deborah-smith-translation-han-kang-novel-vegetarian/.
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Items with "Relation: hibiscusI / "The Vegetarian""
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Ella Lahey's Audio Reflection on "hibiscusI" Sound
The Vegetarian Image