Accession Code: WU1041 Title: Existing in Costume 5 Date completed: 2007 Classification: Photograph Medium: C-Type Print Height (mm): 762 Width (mm): 610 Depth (mm): Inscription: Location Name: Picture Store Location Description: Location Floor:

Golder-Thompson Gift, dedicated to Rebecca Hicks and Nicola Shane.

This is one from a series of works called ‘Existing in Costume’. In the series Chan Hyo Bae can been seen photographed as a woman wearing historic Western costume. The series was inspired by Chan Hyo Bae’s feelings of alienation and exclusion when he came to study in the West. He thought the West had a prejudiced view of Asian men as being effeminate and consequently he assimilated himself more closely with the female students on his course. The choice to dress as a woman in the photograph formed part of Bae's exploration of this prejudice and the way he felt about it. Bae is very interested in historic Western culture and particularly the painting of the past, each of the photographs is composed very similarly to that of historic painted portraits. Within the series he played the role of important historical figures including Mary Stuart, Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I.