Through the reading of intimate letters written to an unknown female adressee, The Corean follows the bureaucratic journey of the artist to recover her South Korean nationality, which she lost when she was sent abroad for adoption as an “orphan.” Focusing on her failed attempt to legally change her surname, she juxtaposes a complex paper trail with unsettling collaged images of Korean women and girls from the lens of white photographers; photographs taken in the late fifties to the eighties. The eyes of the subjects are cut out, emitting a kind of “white gaze” at the viewer. Referencing the work of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and Chris Marker, The Corean is a poetic meditation on self-determination and representation in artistic autoethnography.
Exhibitions and Screenings
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
Representation of Home and Ancestral Homeland in Asian American Literature and Art, Asian American Studies Conference, Denver, CO, 2022, organized by Prof. Kyung hee Pyun, Fashion Institute of Technology with Jean Amato, Young Ji Lee, and Kyunghee Pyun, Fashion Institute of Technology, Discussant: Peter Wang, Butler University