Boren Banner Series: Samantha Wall

Portland artist Samantha Wall (born 1977, Seoul) draws fluidly upon mythology and speculative fiction to depict variations on a serpent woman. In Western storytelling traditions, this figure is often portrayed as grotesque and menacing, but in Korean lore the goddess Eopsin takes the form of a black snake who protects the home. Wall’s drawings reference Eopsin, who was exiled to the ocean in a box, and Anyanwu, the shape-shifting healer in Octavia E. Butler’s novel Wild Seed. Here, the serpent woman’s tangled limbs and flowing hair defy human bodily limitations and push against the frame’s confining borders, presenting femininity as a powerful yet vulnerable state of being.

To create her drawings and the accompanying Boren Banner artwork on the museum’s facade, Wall uses intricate hand-cut stencils and meticulously layers sprayed ink with conté crayon. The resulting figures are composites of the artist and others, most often biracial women. Informed by Wall’s perspective as a Black Korean immigrant in the United States, the multidimensional compositions trouble the exoticization of those who are perceived as “other” and embrace the complexity of transcultural identity.

ABOUT THE BOREN BANNER SERIES

The Boren Banner Series reflects the museum’s commitment to showcasing work by Pacific Northwest artists. This biannual series gives regional artists the opportunity to present a piece as a monumental, 16 x 20 ft. vinyl "banner” alongside an exhibition of related works inside the museum. The billboard-size artwork is prominently sited facing Boren Avenue, the Frye’s most visible and accessible physical interface.