I love to tell stories with glass. Since I came to US in 1999, I have been working with glass to talk about my story of being alien. My feelings of ambiguity, anxiety and dyslexia became subjects of my work. Material glass serves well with my narrative and introspective purpose. The transparency and reflection of glass is both a powerful and playful tool. I have been working with visibility of glass as a metaphor of accessibility. Throughout the history, mirror reflection has been used as a powerful tool to express someone’s inner feelings. I often use mirrors to express emotions such as ambiguity.
Window Home
used window, bird cage, wax, 2002
Window Home was a second piece of the series Building Private Space. It was a tiny space made by used window to express my transitional status.
Kids often gather household materials and build their own space. When I was a little girl, I used to hang a curtain around chairs and stay in there for a long time. After moving to the US, I again felt I needed that kind of private space in order to recover my confidence.
Although it is called “Home”, the space is fragile and clearly seen from outside, which represents my opposite desires to be protected and to be exposed-to be able to access outside world.
Inspired by the images of Alice in Wonderland, I took pictures of myself inside in uncomfortable poses. Even though I no longer fit within the space, I hesitated to leave, and so I disguised my discomfort with a smile, as if the room was very comfortable. The photos have a sense of irony because of the contrast between the comfortable faces and the uncomfortable poses.
Kids often gather household materials and build their own space. When I was a little girl, I used to hang a curtain around chairs and stay in there for a long time. After moving to the US, I again felt I needed that kind of private space in order to recover my confidence.
Although it is called “Home”, the space is fragile and clearly seen from outside, which represents my opposite desires to be protected and to be exposed-to be able to access outside world.
Inspired by the images of Alice in Wonderland, I took pictures of myself inside in uncomfortable poses. Even though I no longer fit within the space, I hesitated to leave, and so I disguised my discomfort with a smile, as if the room was very comfortable. The photos have a sense of irony because of the contrast between the comfortable faces and the uncomfortable poses.
Ego Ballsmirrored ball, wire, motion detector, 2003This piece was installed on one side of a corridor. Sixty four mirror balls were hanging from the ceiling. When someone passed by, a motion detector triggered the balls to vibrate. The balls were moving anxiously with rattling sounds. Viewers could see the shaking reflection of themselves. Influenced by Yayoi Kusama’s Narcissus Garden, I named the balls “Ego Balls.”
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Book Series
Book of QBook of Q was a wooden box shaped like a book. Inside were Wooden blocks with words written in mirror image that made them difficult to read at first sight. They became comprehensible by looking through the mirror on the cover. I hope the viewers experienced the delay and felt the sensation of unfamiliarity I have experienced with new language.
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Book of WaxUsed book, wax, ink, Text from The Blue Book written by Ludwig Wittgenstein, 2000 |
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Book of Mazeused book, mirror, wooden balls, 2000I chose a used book entitled Model and Structure, cut a rectangle out of the center of the book and built a maze inside with pieces of mirror. Twelve wooden balls with words on them were inside the maze. Each word is part of the sentence ‘I-hope-that-you-understand-what-I-try-to-talk-to-you.’ It was also written in mirror image.
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Dyslexia
used book, motor, motion detector, 2002
Five books -reference books such as a dictionary and an atlas- were hanging from the ceiling. In the center of the room, a large dictionary sat on a book shelf. When the viewer approached the book shelf, a motion detector was activated and all the books began to spin. Since they were spinning, books became illegible and whole pages became nothing but big concentric patterns.
The action of approaching deprives the viewer of the chance to read and to understand. I wanted to give the viewer the experience of frustration. It was also meant to be ironic because the act of getting closer-in other words, the desire to understand-prevents comprehension.
Books were motored and wired on the ceiling. The centrifugal force caused them to open gradually and to move around. Like living creatures-barking dogs on a leash-they moved more and more aggressively with rattling sounds.
The action of approaching deprives the viewer of the chance to read and to understand. I wanted to give the viewer the experience of frustration. It was also meant to be ironic because the act of getting closer-in other words, the desire to understand-prevents comprehension.
Books were motored and wired on the ceiling. The centrifugal force caused them to open gradually and to move around. Like living creatures-barking dogs on a leash-they moved more and more aggressively with rattling sounds.
Things Dripping on Me I, II
used window, ink, water, rice paper, wax, glass bowls, white cloth, 2002
This was the third piece of the series Building Private Space. Different from the former works, it was widely opened space. Without any walls, the space was defined only by a paper(or a fabric) laid on the floor and a double-sided window frame hanging as a ceiling. Filled with water or ink, the old frame started to leak. The drops dripped and seeped into the floor to make patterns.
The idea of “leaking” was from my memory of childhood. When I was young, I used to live in an old house with a leaking ceiling. It was my job to find the leaking points and set up bowls to collect the rain drops.
Based on the memory, I decided to recall the image of “leaking” to juxtapose my status of being intruded upon. The first private space I made was only to block myself from the influence of the outside world. But in this work, I tried to let the intruder “in.” Ink dripped on me and made some patterns on my space. It was a gesture to accept the intruder in a positive way, as I accept the rain drops as enjoyable intruders.
The idea of “leaking” was from my memory of childhood. When I was young, I used to live in an old house with a leaking ceiling. It was my job to find the leaking points and set up bowls to collect the rain drops.
Based on the memory, I decided to recall the image of “leaking” to juxtapose my status of being intruded upon. The first private space I made was only to block myself from the influence of the outside world. But in this work, I tried to let the intruder “in.” Ink dripped on me and made some patterns on my space. It was a gesture to accept the intruder in a positive way, as I accept the rain drops as enjoyable intruders.
Being Familiar
video installation, notebook, 2002
This work was comprised of a notebook and a video projection on the wall. The notebook was filled with my hand written words, such as “familiar,” “clear,” “obvious,” “fluent,” and “simple,” in mirror image. The video showed the action of writing them. It started very slowly and gradually got faster as if I became more and more adept at writing mirror image. I picked simple and positive words to be opposed to the main theme of unfamiliarity.
The process was inspired by the memory of my high school. In order to make students memorize new words, my English teacher used to give us assignments such as “filling ten pages with English words.” I really hated that tedious work. The main idea was to make new words familiar by writing them repeatedly. Despite all my efforts, the more I wrote the less familiar I became. The form of the word became detached from its meaning. The word became something new in repetition. Somehow the effort made words unfamiliar rather than familiar.
Since I arrived in the US , I have needed to re-define everything. Even simple words had hidden meanings. The most simple thing could be the most confusing. Writing backwards was a process to “examine familiarity.”
The video showed my crude effort of “making the unfamiliar familiar in an unfamiliar way.” It was a sarcastic action because it was practically no use in being familiar. It was a metaphor of my struggling journey to “familiarity.”
The process was inspired by the memory of my high school. In order to make students memorize new words, my English teacher used to give us assignments such as “filling ten pages with English words.” I really hated that tedious work. The main idea was to make new words familiar by writing them repeatedly. Despite all my efforts, the more I wrote the less familiar I became. The form of the word became detached from its meaning. The word became something new in repetition. Somehow the effort made words unfamiliar rather than familiar.
Since I arrived in the US , I have needed to re-define everything. Even simple words had hidden meanings. The most simple thing could be the most confusing. Writing backwards was a process to “examine familiarity.”
The video showed my crude effort of “making the unfamiliar familiar in an unfamiliar way.” It was a sarcastic action because it was practically no use in being familiar. It was a metaphor of my struggling journey to “familiarity.”
Rice Readingrice, glass bottle, performance/video/installation, 2001Inspired by the ancient ritual of future reading, I wrote words on the grains of rice and threw them as a gesture of reading my future.
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Letter from 진
photos, notes, 2002
Letter from 진 was a greeting card that I wrote to myself. In a red envelope, there were several photos of my surroundings with simple handwritten notes on the back. With the photos, there was a small greeting message from 진 to Jin:
Dear Jin,
Living here is a little bit weird to me.
I feel that surroundings are slightly different from what I used to be with.
But I am OK. I hope you also enjoy your Wonderland, too.
Regards,
진
“진” means “Jin,” which is my initial in Korean. The photos looked common and banal at first sight but tiny parts of each photo were manipulated strangely. Numbers, letters, and signs in the photos were slightly changed. For example, “Fire lane” to “Fire pain,” “RISD store” to “RISD spore” and the color of a stop sign changed from red to blue. Some parts of the notes on the back sides of the photos were misspelled, which suggests what was unusual on the photos.
Unlike my other pieces, I decided to show this work to the viewer personally. I handed it to the viewers much the same way that I would if I were showing them a greeting card which I received. The viewer who did not know the Korean word “진” assumed that it was from someone else. People watched the photos in a polite manner even though there was nothing much of interesting. In the middle of observation, some of them successfully found that something was manipulated in the photos and started to wonder.
That was a moment I attempted to draw from the viewers; the moment when familiarity started to collapse by discovering a small piece of unfamiliarity which lies in a familiar world.
I hoped the viewer would come to understand the piece with time. In order to do so, I had to choose the level of the photo manipulation carefully. The change should be neither too obvious nor too hard to be found. I wanted to create a “slightly different world.” and hoped the viewer to experience it.
Dear Jin,
Living here is a little bit weird to me.
I feel that surroundings are slightly different from what I used to be with.
But I am OK. I hope you also enjoy your Wonderland, too.
Regards,
진
“진” means “Jin,” which is my initial in Korean. The photos looked common and banal at first sight but tiny parts of each photo were manipulated strangely. Numbers, letters, and signs in the photos were slightly changed. For example, “Fire lane” to “Fire pain,” “RISD store” to “RISD spore” and the color of a stop sign changed from red to blue. Some parts of the notes on the back sides of the photos were misspelled, which suggests what was unusual on the photos.
Unlike my other pieces, I decided to show this work to the viewer personally. I handed it to the viewers much the same way that I would if I were showing them a greeting card which I received. The viewer who did not know the Korean word “진” assumed that it was from someone else. People watched the photos in a polite manner even though there was nothing much of interesting. In the middle of observation, some of them successfully found that something was manipulated in the photos and started to wonder.
That was a moment I attempted to draw from the viewers; the moment when familiarity started to collapse by discovering a small piece of unfamiliarity which lies in a familiar world.
I hoped the viewer would come to understand the piece with time. In order to do so, I had to choose the level of the photo manipulation carefully. The change should be neither too obvious nor too hard to be found. I wanted to create a “slightly different world.” and hoped the viewer to experience it.
