Love & Legacy: Our Grandmothers
“Love & Legacy: Our Grandmothers is a joint hybrid project by Barbadian-Scot Curator Cat Dunn and South Korean Artist Joy Baek. Featuring stories of grandmothers from different cultures and time zones. Through an exhibition and an accompanying event and interview, we will celebrate the wisdom of and central role that these women played and continue to play in our lives.
The exhibition researched the traditions and changing roles of grandmothers in South Korea and Barbados through specially commissioned artworks by South Korean artist Joy Baek. What are the roles grandmothers play within families and within the broader community? The research examined the inter-generational and intercultural exchange of stories, language, traditions, emotions, memories and social identity.
Through conversation the curator and artist explored the similarities and differences of race and culture, of coming from the countries and cultures of Barbados and South Korea, and of being in Glasgow at the same time, of being seen as coming from marginalised communities, and through deepening respect realised that their grandmothers had such an influence on the world.
The research investigated the role of this matriarch through the contributions made to everyday life of her family and the transmission of culture and traditions to the next generation. It investigated the many ways cultural knowledge, shared histories and family traditions are kept alive from one generation to another. The research and exhibition provided a space to celebrate and fully acknowledge the achievements, experience, knowledge and contribution of these amazing women by giving voice to these women and their stories using archival materials and oral histories.
Our Grandmothers fed us, nurtured us and are/were the givers of knowledge and wisdom. There are/were storytellers and survivors. They are/were loved, and adored, but their voices were rarely heard in public, their roles are often not formally recognised.
Love & Legacy: Our Grandmothers presented a fresh and nuanced representation of their significance and role throughout the journey from infancy to adulthood. It drew on the notions of identity, culture, family and heritage to reflect the legacy that these women left and the deep-rooted questioning of who we are and what it means to belong through love and care.
The hybrid exhibition resonated with a general audience, reflecting the range of cultures, different experiences and challenging the bias that there is only one way for a woman’s life to take. The exhibition contained artworks, sayings and advise, interviews and culminated in a hybrid conversation.
Curator and artist in conversation: The artist and curator had an insightful in audience conversation about the impact their grandmothers had on them. The conversation explored, in part, how individual histories and intimate relationships were impacted through a generational gap, the traditional roles and different cultural experiences and the realisation that there are those who choose to deal with age differently.
Curator - Cat Dunn
