Existing in Costumes: Chan-hyo Bae

Chan-hyo Bae is a South Korean born artist living in London. His work examines how we look at gender, power, race and class. I love Chan's way of releasing the bindings of these now obsolete ways of classifying humanity. The photos are exquisite.

“The sun never sets over the British Empire.” The country of Queen, the country with pride in her history and tradition, still seems to be breathing in Great Britain. I try to become British just as a child pretends to be a mother by dressing in her clothes and making up with her cosmetics. The attempt to become British is to me what a child tries to do in dressing as an adult. Although the mother’s clothes are unsuitable for the child, the child still tries to dress as its mother, trying to express its existence as another person. The language of a child. In becoming a British lady, which may seem gauche, it is my language.” Chan-hyo Bae