ttae: dirt, grime and time

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Ttae is a Korean word used to describe both the dirt and grim that is rubbed off the body, typically in the bath houses or at home, and also of a specific portion of time.

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Memory is crystallized in images, and connected in sequences.  By the physical act of rubbing to reveal an image that slowly erases, the finite qualities of the image intensify the ephemeral nature of memories.  In tracing, drawing and adding colour to fill in the image, layers on top alter and bury the ones below.  Sealing and preserving the remnants of an image, with its rubbed off segments in beeswax, keeps the possibilities open to future excavations.  What is lost and found perpetually affects understandings and interpretations of the past, present and future.