엄마, meaning “mother” in Korean, explores and visualizes the bond and predestined connection between the mother and child, especially the daughter, through the lens of the red string theory.

Rooted in Chinese lore, this theory states that an invisible red string connects those destined to meet, help, or become significant to each other in some way at a certain point in time. This thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break. This concept is applied to the mother-daughter relationship, narrating and creating a conceptual framework of its ambivalence – dynamics, challenges, and beauty – throughout the various stages of life.

This project contains a three-piece series that encapsulates the application of the red string theory to the mother-daughter relationship: a moving poster series of an average woman’s life that contains mesh/stringlike qualities, a microscopical analysis piece of a knitted composition, and an interactive, growing archive of personal stories about the mother and child.