Han’s sampler is made from a 7.62 m long piece of linen and worked with cotton threads. When completed, the embroidered work will be sold for US$ 680, the costs of applying for naturalization. Han, an immigrant from South Korea, has stated that she will apply for US citizenship only if the sampler sells, thus allowing others to decide “if I’ve proven my worthiness of becoming a citizen.” Han is recording how many hours of work is going into the sampler: as by mid-2015, she has embroidered 53 questions, which represent over 250 hours of work. In this manner she hopes to show how both needlework and immigrant labour are undervalued in US society.
Han is currently a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC, USA).
Digital sources:
- http://www.aramhan.com/us-citizenship-test-sampler.html (retrieved 20th March 2017).
- http://www.aramhan.com (retrieved 20th March 2017).
Digital source of illustration (retrieved 20th March 2017).
SA