A fabulous Project on Color and Gender:
Last spring my dear friend Erin of Culinography received her M.F.A in photography at The School of Visual Arts in New York. The program culminated in a thesis exhibit. I loved Erin’s work and the work of her classmate Jeongmee Yoon. This was all before my Colour Lovers contributing days. Thankfully my new favorite blogger Joanna Goddard of A Cup Of Jo blog reminded me of Yoon’s work. The New York Times just ran a piece on it too since it’s in a show right now (info below).

JeongMee Yoon:
Yoon provokes a conversation on gender and how consumerism helps to define it. Yoon confronts us with the easy polarization of color as prescribed to each gender (pink for girls and blue for boys). Her work evokes a dialogue that circumvents cultural boundaries. Consumerism’s arm is long. Yoon poses us with the supposition that perhaps it is us who bring significance to color rather than color imposing it on us. In fact, many color associations are disparate, constructions that vary with culture and time. To read more on that fascinating topic read this Wikipedia entry. While you are at it, check out this article on gender and education, delving deeper into the issues of why different genders might chose to draw with certain crayon colors and learn better in certain color classrooms. I don’t want to digress away from Yoon though….so back to it…

Where You Can See Yoon’s Project:
Jeongmee Yoon’s work can be viewed at Jenkins Johnson Gallery in New York from March 6th- April 26th.