THE HUNDREDTH DAYS
A Box in the Box 1
2023, Single-channel video, color, Sound, 4 min. 50 sec.
The paths that appear in the video are where the birth mothers would have walked after giving their babies up for adoption or taking them to the baby box. The kiss acts as a “knock” that attempts to bring the socially invisible into view. Also, the walk traces the relationships with the women and the unknown within the limited context given. Silenced voices, narrative gaps, and vigilance against emotional arrogance remind us of informational and emotional asymmetry and unilaterality. Though the work aims to correspond to Martin Heidegger’s authenticity through self-disclosure, the images in the video are generated with ChatGPT, rendering such a pursuit purely conceptual and anonymous.
50 × 50 + α #5, 7, 11, 21
2023, Cyanotype on canvas, 50 × 50 cm
This series of cyanotypes raises visual questions about loss and wholeness. They were created by shredding a single photograph taken of the road where the biological mothers would have walked, then rearranging the pieces to come up with different images. It resonates with the relative fact that the past appears differently each time you look back on the road. The area of the newly created images is always slightly larger than that of the original.
In other words, after filling the given area, there are always pieces that fall out of the canvas, which may be regarded as lost or placed outside the
screen. The creative process is thus a productive acknowledgement of the absence of the piece, not a microscopic exploration of the “missing puzzle piece” often referred to in the context of adoption. Meanwhile, the process of rearranging the shreds arbitrarily weaves together parts originally devoid of continuity, reflecting the will to present a new direction without being attached to unique or momentary presentness.
Drawing for ‘Blue Prayers on a Blueberry Tree’ #2, 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14, 17, 19, 21, 35, 41, 46, 52 56
2023, Cyanotype prints, acetate, masking tape, pen, and conté on paper, 22 × 27 cm
These are studies based on the creative process of the cyanotype series 50 × 50 + α. The main materials for these drawings are the shreds that did not fit on the canvas. The long pieces, or strokes, are based on and attempt to capture numerous movements.
It is a note about an intimate relationship with a person in an unknown realm. I am the closest person unable to say that I cannot know her; her presence and absence is unique and arbitrary.
The Hundredth Days
2023, Wood, dried blueberry, blueberry branch, daily calendar (2022 – 2023) containing the Chinese character for 100 (百) written in calligraphy by the artist’s mother on each page, plaster, hanji (Korean traditional paper), acetate, meok (Korean traditional ink), acrylic, Dimensions variable
Between the doors is a time and space in which ambiguity and uniqueness intersect. It is also a discontinuous connection between the three parties involved in adoption (adoptee, birth mother, and adoptive parents). Until a child is matched to their adoptive parents, from the parents’ point of view, every day may or may not be the 100th day of that
specific baby’s life. The materials for this piece include blueberries and the branches of the tree that the artist, as an adoptive mother, raised while awaiting a child growing up somewhere.