Worlds Ceramic Biennale 2007 Korea
Skin of Asia
Curator: Jaeyoung Kang
Text written by: Inhye Yang, Assistant Curator

The Terracotta Woman Project by Marian Heyerdahl is reinterpretation of the famous terracotta warriors in the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, one of the most important collections of cultural heritage of China. The artist changed the faces of the terracotta warriors into female warriors to create a massive army of women of the 21st century. Like the thousand of warriors of the Qin emperor, each of these female warriors in Marian´s work has a different face and posture, included in this army of female warriors are the pregnant, children, and those who are bleeding. They all express their feelings freely. Some look as brave as male warriors, others look afraid or determined, or joyful. The female-faced horse hit by an arrow on her back adds a mysterious and mystical character to this work, telling us the story of the Qin warriors buried in history. The Terracotta Woman Project shows tradition and tells some of the history of ancient civilization in Asia, and it reinterprets the exquisite expressions shown on the faces of the warriors of the Qin emperor, which were produced so unbelievably long ago. This work also tells hidden stories by the innovativeness of the artist.