Eva Armisen’s project on Haenyeo of Jeju Island, Korea

sklara (66)in #tripsteem • 6 years ago (edited)

Please scroll down for Korean

Hello Steemians~

Last week I posted on Spanish artist Eva Armisen Exhibition, being held at Seoul Arts Center, Korea.

At the exhibition, one of the several sections was allotted to her illustrations in a children's book called ‘Mom is a haenyeo’ and they were also screening a short film on how she was inspired by staying with haenyeos in on Jeju island and having lots of conversation with them during working on the project.

Both her illustration and the film were quite moving so I thought I could share the story with my steemian friends.

Jeju island is located in the south-most of Korea and it’s nature is a bit exotic even to us Koreans, yet so beautiful and thus attracts so many tourists from all over the world.

google map

Jeju island is actually a volcanic island so there you can see basalt or whinstone all over the island. The architecture shows that they used the stones wisely to protect their houses from the wind.

Nowadays it might be a different story but in the old days it must’ve been terribly difficult to live in on the island. To make living many women of Jeju had to work in the field and also had to go to the sea to catch seashells, seaweed and all other eatables while their husbands went out for fishing.

A woman, not a haenyeo though, collected seaweed and carried it on her back. When she struggled to stand up on her feet, a couple of tourists helped her out.

Now, the women who go out to sea to catch eatables, mostly shells, are called haenyeo which means a sea woman or a woman diver.

I do not have photos of them so I captured some images on Google

As you see, they have special suits and other equipment on them.
The one they hold on to their chest is called taewak with which they swim around and leave it floating around when they dive into the sea to do muljil - the work of catching shells under the sea. Underneath taewak, there's a large net attached for their harvest.

source

Interesting fact about them is that they never use an air tank. They usually dive down into 5 meters from the surface and do muljil for about half a minute but sometimes they have go upto 20 meters deep down into the sea and stay there for longer than 2 minutes holding their breath. Nevertheless they never use an air tank.

Official Unesco HP
When they come up to the surface of the water and catch their breath in short bursts, they make unique long sound ‘hooo~y’

When Eva Armisen asks the reason not to use the air tank , an old haenyeo answers.

It’s definitely going to be easy for all of us but we never are greedy, if we catch everything we find there, then there’s nothing left for later. We leave small shells there to grow.

The children’s book ‘Mom is a haenyeo’ is about a young mother who leaves town to be haenyeo and finds peace in Jeju Island.
And the grandmother who’s also a haenyoe tells mother

Now, do not get greedy under the sea and stay there only until your breath can hold.

It might be different these days but to me haenyoe doesn’t mean only the jog doing muljil

To me it’s like a part of spirit of Jeju people who survived the harsh environment, the wisdom to live with nature and on top of everything, motherhood to sacrifice for their children.

Haenyeo is enlisted as Unesco intangible cultural heritage in 2016.
When you visit Jeju isalnd, to go to a little fish town and to watch them doing muljil and listen to their breath catching sound 'hooo~y' will be a life time experience, I am sure.

Now before you leave this page I wish you could take a little moment to click the link of the book trailer and see Eva’s work. Subtitle is in Korean, I am afraid, but you will love the illustration.