The artist’s journey back to South Korea began when as a young art student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, when she suddenly had a chance to return to perform in an event called Space for Shadows, organized by an NGO called Han Diaspora. Han Diaspora was founded by Hijoo Son, a 1.5-generation Korean American scholar, and kimura byol, an overseas adopted Korean Belgian (now also Canadian) artist. As fierce organizers, activists, and cultural workers, they would leave an indelible mark on her practice as an artist and her transracial Korean identity in the years to come.
Space for Shadows was in its second run, the first held in 1996 to great fanfare. RHEE was invited to be one of four artists to present work, along with Me K. Ahn, Mi Ok Song Bruining, and Susan Sponsler, all adopted Korean Americans. The performance work called American Milk was created at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and dealt explicitly with my lost Korean roots, using the traditional music she had been learning while being a member of Loose Roots, the Poongmul (풓물) group at the University of Chicago. The piece experimented with her naked vulnerability, while wearing and disrobing a Minbok (민복), and experimenting with lights and falling uncooked rice on her unclothed body.
“I never suckled your breast.
I never drank the milk of my consciousness.
Is this why I was so sick?
Sick from drinking American Milk?
Years passed, and I had forgotten.” (Space for Shadows 8)