SlipStitch

https://www.slipstitchstudio.com/donate2art

Dilation is a series about how feelings happen through the world around us and the chemical messengers in our brains. Each work pairs a neurotransmitter with a color system, using color as a stand-in for what that messenger does, speeding the heart, sharpening the senses, stirring memory, or calming stress. Every piece begins in a soft gray haze, then shifts from no color to full hue, like emotion coming into focus in real time.

In Ssireum Seonsaengnim / 씨름선생님, Eric looks to Korean folk wrestling as a language of restraint, balance, and return. Ssireum begins at the satba (샅바), where two bodies commit to a shared grip—no strikes, no slaps—only leverage, breath, and timing inside a circular, sand-covered ring. If a wrestler is pushed out of bounds, the match restarts: a ritual of correction, not punishment. The weight classes—Taebaek (75 kg), Geumgang (90 kg), Halla (105 kg), Baekdu (140 kg)—carry the names of mountains, turning strength into geography. Even the ox-shaped trophy echoes village contests where victory meant sustenance.