--1366 is an emergency call number for the victim of a domestic violence. It began its operation since 1983 and it is opened 24 hours a day. As it is a phone counseling for the victims of domestic violence, people who call the number are usually children, housewives and old people who are socio-economically minorities. In Korea there is a rapid collapse of the traditional family structure and value due to industrialization, urbanization and nuclear family. As a result patriarchal figure became violent as ever.
In July 1998 special law was instituted against domestic violence as a countermeasure.
The establishment of a special law means that domestic violence is no longer a private problem but a social one, and that it can also be considered as a criminal act.
Most common victims were the wives. We once in a while encounter them in prime-time news, but the number and the intensity of the violence are beyond our imagination.
Our society is still very slow at recognizing these issues, and we are quite indifferent to the victims of the violence. Under these circumstances, I thought we needed to look straight at these problems, and gather social consensus toward domestic violence.
That was the starting point and intention of the Project 1366.

II

--In Project 1366 I used the picture of the body of battered women. When they were filing papers for a divorce, these pictures were included as evidences. I was able to get help from women’s right organization called ‘women’s hot line’.
First I scanned the image and enlarged it using Photoshop. Enlarged image was part of the body where it was severely injured and bruised. In the image I chose a very small section (0.3cm x 0.3cm) and enlarged them as big as 100cm x 100cm. It became a color-field abstract full of pixels, colors ranging from purple, pink to yellow. Within that color-field I chose one pixel and enlarged them to 100cm x 100cm, and it became a monochrome-field. Through the process, pictures became a rectangle color-field abstract, superficially beautiful in colors like a pictorial photograph, far different from it’s sad and torturing original. My intention was to draw the attention of the viewer, not by repelling them emotionally by showing directly the injured, black and blue body of a battered woman. I thought it was more effective to use paradoxical and sarcastic way of expression rather than using realistic expression to socially accuse domestic violence.
I hope that Project 1366 becomes a common ground where we can draw the attention and sympathy from the audience regarding domestic violence and women’s right issue.