Distances 1992, The Creek 1992

Distances 1992

“A meditation on the personal experience of migration involving the nature of memory, desire and sensation forms a basis for "Distances," a series of 12 panels that combines image and language with sculptural elements. Its format somewhat resembles Asian scroll painting, and by invoking this genre, I hope to suggest absence of the past. As a tenuous link to my family and home, pictures from the family photo albums provide visual information. Each panel is self-contained on its own, however, viewed as a whole, the series creates a collection of personal narrative.”

“As my English gets better, my Korean gets worse.”

“When I was going through the snapshots from my visit, I noticed my mother turned her face away from the camera in all pictures.”

“Leaving my country was not a simple task. I now realize that I never really left nor really arrived.” -yk

Distances, 1992, a series of 12 panels, photograph, plywood, ink, acrylic, 22 in. x 15 in. each, overall dimensions variable, Queens Museum of Art, NY, 1993

Distances #1, “Coming to a new country seemed a simple task. I could not sense the motion of moving through space during the flight.”

Photograph, plywood, ink, acrylic, 22 in. x 15 in..

Distances #2, “When I first arrived I could only speak a few words despite the fact that I studied English for six years.

I was afraid of making a mistake. I still am.”

Photograph, plywood, ink, acrylic, 22 in. x 15 in..

Distances #3, “I thought getting away from my family would change my life.

But I realized I had been wrong all along. One can never leave one’s family.”

Photograph, plywood, ink, acrylic, 22 in. x 15 in..

Distances #3: detail. Photograph, plywood, ink, acrylic.

Distances #4, “I I often think about my kindergarten with such fondness, but to my surprise I have no recollection of my home life.”

Photographs, plywood, ink, acrylic, 22 in. x 15 in..

Distances #4: detail: childhood drawings. Photographs, plywood, ink, acrylic, 22 in. x 15 in..

Distances #5, “During the first two years of elementary school in the countryside my mother and I used to go to the hill

overlooking the ocean to draw and paint. My father visited us once in a while from the city.”

Photograph, plywood, ink, acrylic, 22 in. x 15 in..

Distances #5: detail. Photograph, plywood, ink, acrylic.

Distances #6, “My dream throughout the late teen years was going to America to find a home of my own. I felt lost after my parent’s separation.”

Photographs, plywood, ink, acrylic, 22 in. x 15 in..

Distances #6: detail. Photographs, plywood, ink, acrylic, 22 in. x 15 in..

Distances #7, “As my English gets better my Korean gets worse..” Photographs, plywood, ink, acrylic, 22 in. x 15 in..

Distances #8, “During the visit to my parentsI often heard people asking them whether I was a foreigner.

The truth was I felt like a stranger in my homeland.”

Photograph, plywood, ink, acrylic, 22 in. x 15 in..

Distances #9 “When I was going through the snapshots from my visit, I noticed my mother turned her face away from the camera in all pictures.”

Photographs, plywood, ink, acrylic, 22 in. x 15 in..

Distances #9: detail. Photographs, plywood, ink, acrylic, 22 in. x 15 in..

Distances #10 “Distance is a strange thing. It can be so far and so close simultaneously. It is like the difference between a letter and a phone call”

Photograph, plywood, ink, acrylic, 22 in. x 15 in..

Distances #11 “My parents sent me a recent portrait picture but I could not look at it. They didn’t look the way I remembered them.”

Photograph, plywood, ink, acrylic, 22 in. x 15 in..

Distances #12 “Leaving my country was not a simple task. I now realize that I never really left nor really arrived.”

Photograph, plywood, ink, acrylic, 22 in. x 15 in..

The Creek, 1992.

Three channel video installation, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY, 1993

Three monitors are installed behind a constructed wall with cut-out windows. In order to diffuse the video image, the three windows are covered with translucent material. The structure of the piece is based on a constant movement of voiceover and images which move from one monitor to the next, creating a flow of rhythm among three screens. Recollection of my childhood memories is intertwined with a story of my mother's dream, as the allegorical images of mementos intermittently fade in and out of the screens.