Allegiance, Fidelity and the Boundaries of Belonging (2020)
Allegiance, Fidelity and the Boundaries of Belonging builds on the 2018 installation work Crossing the Line, that displayed the paper trail of quiet violence of forced migration and detailed RHEE’s shifting identity. The immigration process of her American adoption and naturalization to become a US citizen and the painful emotional and bureaucratic journey she undertook in 2017 to reclaim her legal original South Korean identity is represented in official looking documents and certifications. Both works evoke larger global and historical issues surrounding identity records and archives, while underscoring how the power of documents control, hinder and grant mobility. While the artist was fighting to recover her lost South Korean nationality, not only were transnational adopted adults in the United States getting deported back to their birth countries for lack of legal status, but also thousands of refugees and migrants were risking their lives to seek a better place in Europe and the United States.
Exhibitions
[dis]locations: Traversing solidarities within Korean adopted activisms, 2020, AHL Foundation, NYC, curated by Amy Miyang Ginther
Inventing Genealogies, 2021, choose your own adventure interactive website, collaboration with Baruch College students, New Media Artspace, Baruch College, CUNY, New York, curated by Katherine Behar