Abrasion (살갗)

Year: 2007–2008
Format: Experimental Short Film
Running Time: 11 minutes 28 seconds
Screening Format: DigiBeta and HD
Sound: Stereo
Language: Korean (with English subtitles)

Abrasion chronicles a series of surreal and turbulent events in the life of a young woman named Jin-Kyung. Trapped in a suffocating relationship with a local butcher who obsessively pursues her, she begins to experience the emotional strain as a physical wound forming on her back. As reality blurs with fantasy, she attempts to escape into the countryside, leading to a traumatic and symbolic confrontation.

The film was created for both gallery and theatrical presentation and premiered at Ha Na Lee’s thesis solo exhibition at the Melville Library Gallery in December 2007. It was projected in HD at a scale of approximately 10 ft. x 21 ft. and ran in 12-minute loops every 15 minutes. The exhibition also featured three large-scale archival digital prints (42 in. x 28 in.), selected from the film’s stills to depict the complex relationship between Jin-Kyung and a pig carcass—a metaphor for her desire to escape reality through an unsettling act of stitching flesh.

Watch Abrasion at Vimeo