Green Hammock

Ke-Sook Lee, artist

1941–2025

Green Hammock, 2010

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: mixed media; cloth; thread

Credit line: Museum purchase: R. Charles and Mary Margaret Clevenger Art Acquisition Fund and East Asian Art Acquisition Fund

Accession number: 2012.0075

Not on display

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Exhibition Label:
“Holding Pattern: New Works at the Spencer Museum,” Sep-2014, Kris Ercums
Green Hammock is constructed from U.S. Army nurse uniforms dating from the height of the Vietnam War in the 1970s. Lee encountered the uniforms at an Army surplus store and recalls being struck by the way they were torn, marked, and missing buttons, thus reflecting the combat experience of the nurses who wore them. Initially she began by creating a camouflage net; however, as she worked, the piece evolved into a hammock. The hammock represents a place of temporary respite and restoration from the horror and trauma of warfare. The hanging threads and stitched patches of hanging fabric are what Lee calls “dream remnants.” By evoking the human form, the hammock serves both as a powerful testament to the role of army nurses and as a striking rumination on the trauma of war.