Artist showcases traditional Korean embroidery

An embroidered painting of Lee Jeong-hee at the Hanoi display (Photo: laodong.com.vn)

She is exhibiting about 44 embroidered artworks, including the two latest curtains and the largest one, entitled Green Dragon White Tiger.

Lee embroidered the curtains after being inspired by two paintings of Shin Shaim-dang, the greatest Korean female artist of the 16th century.

Lee made the curtains, measuring 76cm by 110cm, in 14 to 15 days in summer.

"I want ancient paintings to appear in daily life such on curtains," Lee said.

The Green Dragon White Tiger curtain, measuring 50cm by 180cm, is an impressive display at the exhibition. It took Lee three years of 12-hour daily work to finish the painting, which features an imposing landscape of mountains and clouds with a dragon and a tiger facing each other.

Green Dragon White Tiger has been exhibited throughout Korea since 2003. It was also displayed in Japan in 2010 and 2012, and in China last year.

The painting is also the largest work of Lee's 30-year career.

Other paintings with royal symbols and patterns are the highlights of the festival.

"I used golden thread to make royal symbols such as dragons, tigers and birds, which symbolise the king, civil mandarins and military mandarins," Lee said.

She started doing Korean traditional embroidery when she was 17, overcoming a physical disability and other personal difficulties.

In 2013, Lee received the Presidential Award for Disabled People in Arts and Culture.

She has represented and advanced the cause of Korean embroidery for 30 years, with little more than her hands.

Her life has been devoted to traditional Korean embroidery. She communicates with the world as an artist, not as a disabled person.

The exhibition, which includes embroidered products used in daily life such as ties, wallets, pillows and table cloth, will run till November 21 at the Korean Cultural Centre, 49 Nguyen Du street.