The Postcolonial Afterlives of Han (2021)

The Postcolonial Afterlives of Han, 2021, mixed media installation, 2 m x 6 m x 4 m, exhibition view, Intervention: Fresh Perspectives after 50 Years, Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, CA, curated by Rebecca Hall, 2021, photo: Peter Perigo

There’s no place like Korea, 2019, rubber shoes, rhinestones, sequins, acrylic, wool felt, 6 x 12 x 22cm, Intervention: Fresh Perspectives after 50 Years, Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, CA, 2021, photo: PAM and Peter Perigo

Meta-Suûi (Funeral Hanbok), 2021, hemp, cotton, polyester stuffing, 70 x 56 x 12 cm, photo: Aleks Slota




Dela Parra Productions, Alvara Parra, Nathalia Morales-Evanks, Camera: Felix Schuster

The title of this installation, The Postcolonial Afterlives of Han references a 2017 essay by scholar Dr. Sandra Soo Hee Chi Kim, who considers Han (defined generally as regret, resentment and rage, and what is considered to be essential to a Korean identity), which emerged during Japanese colonialism, an essentialist colonialist stereotype. Coined “sorrowful beauty,” by Japanese art critic Yanagi Sōetsu, the concept Han has become inextricably linked to “Korean ethnonationalism” and “encapsulates the grief of historical memory.” It is with a transnational feminist lens that the artist explores the themes of death ritual and collective mourning, looking at the modern transformation of Korean grief framed not only as a concept influenced by Japan’s occupation of Korea, but also the ongoing influence and military occupation by the United States.