Pieces

Nearly a decade, I have been exploring a concept of art making as activism.  My current work continues to embrace art making as an accessible way to underscore the issues and impacts of climate change that are often hidden and hard to grasp.  I scavenge and repurpose once used commercial packages and vintage molds as a process to reimagine and invent vessels and domestic objects, infused with a new visual language, meaning and purpose.  I hope that this way of making and material engagement will lead us to a better understanding of the relationship between our current consumption patterns and the present climate change.  My work offers a direct, tangible response that not only highlights our contributions to the global climate change, but also provides a healthier conversation to reduce anxiety surrounding the ever-growing climate crisis.

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All the while, my work is entirely and speculatively utilitarian, intimate and domestic.  As a Korean American, who grew up in a culture where any kind of social gathering begins and ends with food, making utilitarian vessels seems almost instinctive.  The word family in Korean is “sikgu (식구),” which literally means those who dine together.  These early experiences have taught me that utilitarian vessels often fulfill multiple functions.  Most basically they help to serve and nurture us.  They also create a physical as well as emotional context for social connection and interaction.  As enduring witnesses to our human experiences, they allow space for every celebratory life moment as well as those times of desperation, loss and grief.  I admire that they have this potential for holding and carrying on our shared memories and meaning.